Season Six: Episode One
by Rianya
Summary: Rather significant rewrite so I'm reposting from the start. In brief: Takes up where Duke didn't really die.
1. Chapter 1

Season 6 Episode 1

God's Children

 _(Pretty major rewrite starting in Episode 2 – sorry. I hit a huge snag and decided it was way too complicated to try and have time running differently on different worlds. Now all worlds run at the same time and the time dilation Duke and Audrey experienced in the Barn was a result of the Barn's impending implosion.)_

 _"And I will spend the rest of my life trying to repay that debt."_

Duke heard those final words faintly through the roaring in his ears. His chest heaved convulsively, as his body reflexively tried to suck in oxygen but Nathan's grip remained iron tight. He felt Audrey's hand on his – heard the pain in her voice – and he saw the Guard symbol on Nathan's arm. His eyes rolled and he went limp, consciousness fading as Audrey's sob echoing in his ears.

And then he was in a lush green meadow, buttercups and daisies flowering all around him and a gorgeous blue sky above the face above his. A strange woman was just pulling back from him – her lips had been on his. Blue eyes, deeper than the sky above them twinkled merrily at him and hair the color of a roan horse flowed down one side of her face like a veil. Freckles sprinkled her cheeks and snub nose.

"That's better." She said in a voice huskier than he expected given her youthful features. It was one shade away from sultry, in fact. "I might have cut it a trifle close there." She continued as he blinked and tried to collect his thoughts.

"What…?!" Then he remembered what had happened. "What are you doing? Nathan has to…"

"Nathan has to think he killed you – at least for a while." She interrupted him. "Because then Croatoan thinks you're dead. But you weren't the only trouble collector that's ever been designed, you know."

"Uhhh, no, I didn't know." Duke sat up cautiously. He felt remarkably well for someone who had just been throttled and smothered.

"I healed it." The woman said airily.

"What?"

"The damage." She took his hand and turned his palm over, revealing the red cut on it he had made before Audrey had talked him back to himself. Her hand brushed gently over it and a green glow followed that touch. When the glow faded his hand was without a sign of injury. "I healed you. It was a near thing, though. I had to breathe for you until your body remembered that function. Like I said, I cut things a little close."

"Who the hell are you?" Duke demanded carefully, suddenly feeling a certain sympathy for Audrey's hostility that long ago day when she'd awakened in his bed with no notion of what had happened.

The woman giggled cheerfully.

"Ahhh, there's the Dread Pirate Duke I've been looking forward to meeting." She exclaimed with satisfaction. "You can call me Grace."

"You don't understand what you're doing. I need to –"

"You need to listen for a minute." Grace cut him off – not without a certain brusque sympathy.

"Okay…" Duke arched a sardonic brow. "Enlighten me."

"Audrey and Nathan think you are dead – they're very sad about it, in fact. They have a simulacrum of you to mourn over and bury. You, however, are quite alive. Croatoan knows nothing of this. He believes you dead because he can sense Audrey's grief – and because there is nothing left of the connection to your mind he used to control you."

"And just how did you accomplish that?"

She vanished from before his eyes and her voice came from behind him. He surged to his feet and whirled to find her twirling gaily in a circle, red hair flaring around her head like her long, loose skirt flared around her legs.

"All God's children got troubles, Duke." He heard her say to the sky. She seemed to be quite pleased with herself.

"You used a trouble to whisk me away from my death?" He asked skeptically.

"Well, we call them skills. And I'm _very_ skilled." She smirked suggestively. "Besides, I didn't whisk you away from your death. You _did_ die – for a few moments, at least. It was the only way to free you from Croatoan."

"That was very – kind – of you, but I have to help my friends now." Duke declared, his face stiffening as he realized even now he couldn't just walk away from Haven, Nathan, or Audrey.

"I know." Grace stilled suddenly, her face growing as serious as Duke could have hoped for. "But I have to teach you a few things first."

"Who the hell are you?" Duke asked again, his voice growing hard. Three swift steps brought him to her and he grabbed her fiercely by the shoulders and gave her a remarkably restrained shake, considering how frustrated he'd grown.

"I'm like you, Duke, created to collect troubles for a Troublemaker. I'm from another world, like Mara, but not her world. There are a few people like you and me and a lot more who help us to fight the Troublemakers still wreaking havoc on unsuspecting worlds. We've been watching you but you Crockers have been in Haven and under Croatoan's direct observation for generations. We've never had the chance to act – until now."

Duke blinked and his grip on her shoulders loosened.

"Why were you watching me?"

"We've been watching your family, Duke. We know now what the lineage of a trouble collector looks like and we recognized what Croatoan was doing right from the start." Grace answered but Duke was experienced at spotting half truths and his expression hardened as he caught hers. Grace caught it and she quickly elaborated.

"We weren't aware of Croatoan's influence on this world until after Mara had been captured and put in the Barn. The solution wasn't tenable, we could tell that much, but we weren't prepared to expose ourselves to the people of Mara's world so we watched and waited for an opportunity."

"Do you know how many people have died?!" Duke's fists clenched in barely suppressed rage.

"We've helped where we could without revealing ourselves." She replied defensively. "But we didn't dare take the chance of exposing ourselves to either Croatoan or his homeworld."

"Why?"

"We're a small group of people. We have skills – like your troubles only we control them – but we lack the population and resources of their world. If they chose to attack us we would be defenseless."

"So you protected yourselves at our expense?"

"We would do no one any good if we were destroyed." Grace replied, her chin rising in irritation. "This is not the only world that has troubles and Croatoan is not the only troublemaker."

"So why act now?" Duke asked suspiciously.

"Because I could do so safely. Because I couldn't stand by and let you die. Because you are your world's best chance at defeating Croatoan once and for all." Once again Duke sensed an evasion and his eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"What do you mean by that?" Duke demanded skeptically.

"I mean with your help your friends can contain or neutralize Croatoan. Without you the outcome is less likely to be positive."

"What is it you want me to do?" Now his voice reflected the suspicion on his face. Grace's expression radiated sympathy, which only increased Duke's discomfort.

"I want to teach you a few things and then I want you to make sure that Nathan and Audrey face Croatoan together. If they do, Haven will be saved. If they don't – more than Haven will fall to Croatoan's mad ambitions."

"How can you know that?"

"I've already told you that I'm Skilled. Sometimes in pivotal moments I get visions of the future. I've seen two outcomes to this day. You are the fulcrum, Duke."

"That's all you want? To teach me skills that will let me help Haven?"

"That's all I want right now, yes. After you have set your friends on their paths I hope that you will return with me to Sanctuary and join us – but that has nothing to do with events at this moment."

Duke paced back and forth a few times; fighting his conviction that everything he tried was doomed to failure and a stubborn hope that this time he could make a positive impact for Haven and his friends. He was also wondering just what Grace was hiding from him because he could tell there was something more.

"Teach me." He finally declared, coming to a halt in front of Grace. His suspicions had to wait, he decided, because Audrey and Nathan still needed him. Grace smiled, not in triumph but with deep relief.

"Arrange yourself in a comfortable position, Duke, and relax, however works best for you, and center yourself."

Duke took several slow, deep breaths and she could tell when he was settled in his own mind.

 _"Now look inward. You can sense the troubles in your blood, like this. Identify them."_

Her presence was suddenly in his mind, showing him what he had never realized he could do. She was silent while Duke studied himself according to her instruction. Finally he opened his eyes in a mute request for more guidance.

 _"Most of the troubles your family has gathered are nothing but harmful – you need to deactivate them like this."_ Duke had a vision of black balls of aether being enclosed in secure white boxes and stacked in a room. _"But some will have useful applications… These you must arrange and compartmentalize within your mind – like so."_

Duke absorbed the information eagerly, adapting the information to conform to the yoga practices, inventory at the Gull, shipping techniques, anything he was familiar and comfortable with.

 _"Very good."_ Grace complimented him as he neared the end of his mental organization. _"Now, if you will permit it, I have a few skills to offer you that you will find helpful."_

Duke's eyes sprang open in surprise at that information.

"You can do that? You can trouble people too?"

"Granting a skill is not the same as giving a trouble, Duke." Grace replied sternly. "This isn't going to be something that latches on to your emotions and erupts uncontrollably."

Duke looked decidedly unconvinced but nodded an acceptance anyway. He was committed now to doing whatever he had to if it would help Haven and his friends. Grace took a small knife from a pocket in her skirt and pricked her finger. A ruby drop of blood welled up and she took Duke's hand in a tight grip and pressed that drop of blood to his wrist. His eyes flared silver and Grace was in his mind again.

" _Telepathy."_ She showed him the simple mental image of a radio receiver she used to trigger the ability in herself. _"Concealment. Teleportation."_

With each she showed a simple image to aid in conscious control of the ability: a radio for telepathy, a cloak for concealment and for teleportation, much to his amusement, the shimmer of a Star Trek teleporter. When she finished Duke practiced the three abilities until he was satisfied that he controlled them.

"Now I just need to get back to Haven." Duke told her, challenge in his posture and voice as he anticipated her refusal.

"No you don't." She contradicted him. She continued as he bristled with suspicion and anger. "You never left, Duke. We're in a secluded section of the park. Just open your eyes."

Duke obeyed and in a flash of déjà vu saw Grace's face rising above his and knew that her lips had been on his a moment before. Her red hair was confined to a braid now but otherwise she was exactly as he had first seen her. His eyes glowed silver from the blood she had shared with him moments before and, unsettling to him, so did hers. It brought back memories of Wade and his addiction to troubled blood but Grace's expression was serene. She rose easily to her feet from her kneeling position beside him and offered him a hand to help him up. He waved it away and easily got to his feet, waiting a moment for the rush of euphoria and strength to fade.

"Okay, what the hell was _that_?" Duke demanded.

"I created a sort of virtual reality in your mind to interact with you, Duke. It allowed me to heal you and train you without drawing attention to us. It also allowed me to work with you in a shorter period of time. We think faster than we act so the virtual mindscape is a great time saver. You're fully awake now, though." Grace told him calmly.

"I'm going now - I have to help them."

 _"Speak mentally to all you interact with, Duke – it will give you an air of mystery and authority that will help, and I advise you to use the cloaking skill to avoid being seen by any but a select one or two."_ She told him silently. _"Also…"_ She gestured and the jeans and flannel shirt and tan jacket he wore transformed into black jeans, a black shirt and a black wool jacket.

Duke looked down at himself and then at her.

 _"Don't you want to look your best for them?"_ She asked silently but with a smile tugging her lips.

Duke gave a minuscule shrug and walked away from Grace, similar smile on his face. Grace vanished, only to reappear in the bell-tower of the church. She settled herself comfortably to wait while Duke wrapped up matters in Haven.

Several hours later Duke appeared in the bell-tower beside her, joining her silently in gazing down over the town of Haven as aether vanished from person after person and the cloud of aether in the sky thinned and disappeared.

"You only showed yourself to Dwight?"

"He was the only one who wouldn't be hurt more by my reappearance and subsequent disappearance. He has Lizzy to take his mind off of things." Duke said quietly.

Grace could feel the emotions battling each other for supremacy: Loss of this home and friends, relief that his role in Haven was ended, crushing guilt and a conflicted joy that they were free of the troubles.

"Why isn't the barn taking our troubles?" He finally asked.

"Do you want it to? Or do you want to help others still?" Grace asked him instead of answering the question.

"I'm tired." Duke said simply.

"I know. But you must still want to be a force to help others because only you could be preventing your barn from taking the skills and aether within you. Are you ready to come home with me, Duke?" Grace turned to face him, all hint of mischief and merriness gone from her face. "Haven is for God's Orphans but Sanctuary is for God's Children. People like you and me. Do you understand you belong with us now?"

"No." Duke said. "I don't understand that at all. But I'm curious. Can I come and make my decision then?"

If Duke had a single driving quality, it was curiosity. He might think it was the acquisition of money but that was just a means to an end. What he really loved was learning new things, experiencing new things. He didn't have such an eclectic body of knowledge by accident – it was thanks to his driving curiosity.

"None of us are bound to Sanctuary, Duke. Come, stay, go, decide to stay and change your mind - it doesn't matter. Your options are always open."

"Why would you want me? I'm a killer. I've been a monster."

In reply Grace sent an image to Duke's mind. It was her, standing in the ruins of a small settlement, wooden buildings on fire, wooden palisade blown into matchsticks. Her eyes were black as night and her red hair flared around her head in the light and wind of the flames around her.

"Because you are one of us, Duke. And because we have a purpose and you need a purpose right now."

Duke searched her face carefully then took her hands and nodded.

"I'd like a purpose." He agreed, just the slightest hitch to his voice revealing a wealth of need to Grace's experienced ear. She sensed, however, that curiosity drove him as well. He wanted to know what she was hiding – and he would, soon enough…

"Purpose, family, redemption..." She paused, her eyes darkening with remembered pain. "The other reason _I_ came is because we share similar backgrounds. I know what you are feeling right now because I went through something similar. Not all God's Children did."

"How old are you anyway?" Duke asked curiously, suddenly realizing the image she had sent him was from an entirely different era."

"Younger than Audrey – but not by much. But that image wasn't just from a different era. Like I told you, I'm from another world, Duke. It has similarities to yours but it isn't this place."

The sorrow and depression that had colored Duke's expression lifted slightly as he digested that answer and was intrigued.

"Oh yes, Duke – a _very_ long life awaits you if you desire it. And it will be filled with new discoveries. There are a multitude of worlds connected by the Void. We've only explored a fraction of them."

"Then let's go. Let me see if it's a home you offer or not."

Grace grinned, the same merry grin Duke had seen in the very beginning, but now he was alert to the sorrow shading her eyes.

"Yes, Duke, let go home."

She teleported them back to the park and then Duke followed Grace through the thinnie she produced right in front of them, apparently another of her skills. They emerged in the Void, which Duke thought was remarkably substantial for a place called "the Void". Grace caught his thought and she laughed lightly.

"It was once a living and thriving dimension." She told Duke as she led him swiftly through the wooded environment. "Something happened, though. We suspect it was something slow because some life has adapted and still thrives – like these plants and a few other lifeforms."

"Crabs with human eyes?" Duke asked, remembering Jennifer's description of the creatures she had seen.

"Yes. They exist here. You should avoid them if possible. They are rarely aggressive but if they choose to attack they have a painful, and frequently lethal, poison in their tails."

"So what about the trees? Are they going to try and eat me or something?" Duke gave the vegetation around them a wary look.

"Not as far as we've found. We don't spend very much time here. The chaos that aether emits is not healthy for higher lifeforms. Well, it's not healthy for lower lifeforms either but they have less capacity to go mad and embark on a mission of mass destruction."

"Yet Croatoan and William were here for centuries, weren't they?"

"And neither of them were what I would call "well balanced"." Grace noted dryly. "Croatoan was not originally the monster he became. His and William's exile was exceptionally foolish. It was generous of your Nathan to grant William the means to return to his homeworld but I would not be at all surprised to find we need to deal with him sometime down the road."

"You think he's insane?"

"Not exactly insane. Aether is the essence of chaos. Chaos can be a bountiful source of energy but it is the opposite of serenity. So this world, which is imbued with aether, is neutral at best and destructive in the main. Even though William's people seem to withstand this chaos better than your own, I believe they are more susceptible to the negative mental effects. I strongly suspect that is why Mara, who had aether incorporated into her very body, was such an unstable individual."

"That makes a lot of sense. She was the smartest person I've ever met, barring Charlotte maybe, but she was fickle and immature and utterly lacking in empathy as far as I could tell." Duke said slowly, remembering his time with Mara – the woman who was almost-Audrey and yet basically her opposite. He hated her, he loved her, and no one had ever hurt him so deeply, not even his mother, not even the loss of Jennifer.

"Even her mother was affected, I suspect." Grace noted, oblivious to his emotional turmoil. She ducked into a nearly invisible opening in a granite cliff face. "I cannot otherwise explain where her plan to place her daughter in that device and spit her out with altered memories every so often would have come from. Any thinking being would realize this could only promote anger and resentment, not healing or understanding."

"How would Charlotte have been affected?" Duke wondered.

"Originally she came to the Void with her husband, researching aether and exploring the worlds which are accessible through this place. Here the boundaries between worlds are permeable – in part because aether seeks new worlds to devour. That is the nature of chaos, after all."

"How do you know all of this?"

"One of our people was able to see the past. All he required was an object that had been handled often by the subject. He was curious about Croatoan and Mara and spent a long time seeking to understand what created them."

"That sounds like a handy ability."

"Not here in the Void it isn't." Grace countered with a distant sorrow. "He too was affected by the chaos of aether. We lost him."

"I'm sorry." Duke told her awkwardly.

"It was a long time ago. We have reached the entrance to Sanctuary but before we enter I must be frank with you."

Duke braced himself and Grace caught it and was saddened. She wasn't sure how he'd take her revelation, even though she knew he was expecting the other shoe to drop but what really made her sad was the fact that he was waiting to be betrayed. He didn't fear betrayal, he simply expected it.

"I didn't just save you to save Haven." She admitted to him. "I also saved you because I need help – help I believe you are uniquely qualified to provide. Something is wrong in Sanctuary and I am not sure who I can trust. You, when you are trained, will be at least as Skilled as I – possibly more so – and I am hoping you will help me discover what or who is wrong in Sanctuary."

"Why does everyone keep thinking I want to help?" Duke asked, not for the first time.

"I've seen your heart, Duke." Grace said with unassailable logic. "You are a protector, no matter how much you may wish otherwise."

"So, you want my help – and you don't want your friends on the other side of this thinnie to know about it?"

"Exactly."

Duke heaved a heavy sigh as he looked at Grace's hopeful expression. A small smile touched her lips as she sensed his capitulation – he suspected he was going to grow irritated by her ability to sense his response before he made it but he nodded his head and her smile grew.

"Thank you." She sighed in relief and held out her hand for Duke to take. "You cannot step through this portal without touching me."

"I thought you said I wasn't going to be bound if I came to your sanctuary." Duke went from casually interested to deeply mistrustful in an instant.

"You won't," she said patiently, "but I do not posses the ability to allow you free passage. That person is on the other side. If she declines to grant you passage I promise I will bring you back through the Void to wherever you wish to go. Will you trust me just a little longer?"

The hand she held out to him remained steady but she made no further effort to influence his choice. Duke looked at her skeptically but finally reached out and took her hand.

" _I am placing a block to this conversation in your mind, Duke."_ Grace told him as they started through the thinnie. _"There are other individuals in Sanctuary who can read minds and we don't want them to know we're suspicious. This will deflect them from your memory of this conversation."_

Before Duke could decide whether or not to be offended by her high handed meddling with his mind they emerged in a meadow high above a small town with brightly colored buildings clustered together below them. Duke's first impression was that they had emerged in Lookout Point above Haven.

"Not Haven." Grace answered his unspoken thought. "Where Haven was "Haven for God's Orphans", we are Sanctuary. Well, to be precise, this is "Sanctuary for God's Children". It's a tad pompous so I prefer Sanctuary."

"As if you're here enough to call it anything." A mocking voice came from behind them.

Duke turned to see a modest building just a few steps away. A woman with skin the color of mocha and an exuberant mass of curly hair framing her face stood grinning broadly at Grace, who returned her grin just as broadly.

"Tehani!" Grace exclaimed gladly. "Meet Duke."

"You succeeded!" Tehani observed cheerfully. "Matthis owes me a forfeit."

"There are still people in Sanctuary who bet against me? When will they learn?"

"Never, I hope. Hello, Duke." Tehani said, moving down the wooden stairs of the building with her hand outstretched. "Word of advice: Never bet against Grace completing a mission."

"Grace's mission was to rescue me?" Duke asked doubtfully, automatically accepting the handshake.

"That was her secondary mission. Her primary mission was to ensure that Croatoan was defused."

"He lives." Grace said sourly. "He's within a new Barn."

"That's troubling." The smile faded from Tehani's face.

"He's powering the barn." Duke offered consolingly. "He chose to remove himself and the aether from Haven to please Audrey."

"You have news indeed." Tehani observed seriously. "This calls for a meeting."

"Feed us while you're setting it up, would you dear? I don't know about Duke but I suspect he's as famished as I am."

"I could eat." He admitted.

"There's chowder and biscuits in the kitchen. Help yourselves."

Tehani preceded them into the building which turned out to be a home. She disappeared through a doorway directly to the left of the entrance but Grace led Duke through the living room to an airy kitchen behind it. A sturdy oak table with simple wooden chairs took up the center of the room with a wood stove and a perfectly ordinary refrigerator along one wall and a large double sink and cabinets taking up the back wall. A huge picture window showed the back yard, fenced with a white picket fence and containing several brightly colored birds.

"Tehani keeps chickens and goats." Grace told Duke, noting his gaze. "Her quiche is amazing."

Grace dished them up and they ate in a companionable silence for a while.

"The meeting will most likely require your input." Grace finally said, breaking the silence. "Some will undoubtedly have questions for you to answer. After that you will be offered sanctuary – or not."

"Wait – what?" Duke asked her incredulously. "You made it sound like me being part of all this was a done deal – not that you ever explained what "this" actually is."

"I believe you will be welcomed." Grace assured him quickly. "But I cannot promise. I may have let my own desires influence my words."

"You want me here?" Duke decided that it was best to pretend he didn't know just how much she apparently wanted him in Sanctuary.

"I believe you belong here. If there is no place for you here then I will have to question my own presence in Sanctuary for I was influenced to far greater harm than you. Granted my Troublemaker was much less stable than yours."

"You've lost me." Duke admitted after trying to decipher her comment.

"She does that – especially when she's trying to tell someone things she knows she isn't supposed to yet." Tehani said wryly from the doorway. She gave Grace a stern look which Grace shrugged off.

"I see no need for secrecy. He will be told anyway."

"We have procedures, Grace. If I didn't know you as well as I do I would fear that the Void was affecting you."

"I have always been thus." Grace said blandly.

"I know."

"You know, I'd _really_ like to know what's going on." Duke said, starting to grow irritated.

Grace got up and gathered their dishes. She washed them quickly and stacked them to dry, wiped down the table, and then turned to Tehani. Duke's temper simmered.

"Are they ready?"

"Yes." Tehani studied her friend for a minute and then sighed a little. " _Try_ to be cordial this time. Many of them are new and do not know you as I do. I don't wish for you to be tied down in an evaluation. They make you so cranky."

"I'll do my best." Grace promised. Tehani looked unconvinced.

"Come, Duke, let us go meet the council of Sanctuary."

"Right…" Duke rubbed his face, suddenly tired; tired of the day, tired of being judged, tired of expectations, tired of everything really. He started when Grace laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"The day is almost over, Duke." She told him compassionately. "I will give you a bed for the night in my place when we finish here."

"I'm starting to worry I'm going to be locked up when we finish here." Duke told her frankly.

"You've done nothing wrong. I might get locked up," she admitted with a depreciating smile, "but you are still welcome to use a bed in my place if I am. Tehani has access and will guide you if I am detained. Let's go face the music."

Seeing no alternative, Duke shrugged and followed the two women out of the room. Tehani led them into the door she'd taken when they first entered the house. It led to a 10' x 20' room with several comfortable looking office chairs, two long tables, and three walls covered with what looked like flat screen televisions. A different face peered down from each screen.

"Grace, you've kept the council waiting –" began an elderly man irritably.

"Sorry, Therman." Grace cut him off casually. "Duke and I were starving. I thought it only polite to feed him before throwing him to the wolves – metaphorically speaking."

Duke blinked – she approached his level of disrespect for authority.

"Did you complete your mission?" Therman demanded, his ire clearly growing.

"Sort of…" Grace hedged uncomfortably.

"Define "sort of"." Therman glowered at her, pressing his fingertips together before his face.

"Croatoan is now locked away in a new barn. All the troubles on that world have been removed by the barn, with no further loss of life. Croatoan powers this barn – voluntarily, of course, which bodes well for his eventual rehabilitation."

"And Mara?"

"Mara was erased by her mother. An overlay personality, Audrey, was placed in control of their body. She also entered the barn as the power of her love for Nathan Wuornos and Haven was required to catalyze the aether in Croatoan." Grace's responses were brisk and businesslike.

"And this gentleman?"

"You know perfectly well that he is Duke Crocker. He could not remain on that world, particularly not after all believed him dead. I believe that it is imperative that Croatoan not realize he lives – or he might be tempted to resume his path of revenge and destruction."

"Why does he live? Why did you intervene?" Therman asked pointedly.

"You mean, aside from the fact that he'd just laid down his life to save the people he loved and a hell of a lot of people he didn't even know?" Grace questioned, losing a bit of her professionalism. "That would be because he was needed to guide a satisfactory outcome. The people of Haven didn't know me and certainly wouldn't have responded to any direction I could have offered. Duke they knew and trusted – and it worked."

"You were sent to destroy Croatoan." This was voiced by an elderly woman with distinctly Asian features.

"I couldn't do that without destroying Duke as well. Up until the moment he believed Duke dead Croatoan was tightly linked with him. His death would have backlashed onto Duke."

"So now we have a potential time bomb on our hands. What happens if Croatoan has another change of heart?"

"Then we can always destroy him then." Grace suggested with a certain dark practicality and not very well hidden relish. Duke suppressed a smile at her obvious dislike of the man who had tormented him. "This way not only saved Duke, it also removed all the troubles and aether on that planet. All we have to do now is make sure no one opens another thinnie there. They can develop in peace."

"And just what are we expected to do with your stray?"

Duke was growing very angry by now. His mouth opened but Tehani gave his arm a warning squeeze and he subsided unhappily.

"What you did with me." Grace looked around at the other faces. "When I came here with Willem you gave me a home. You offered me a purpose and a chance at redemption. Duke is no different than I. In fact I would argue that he's a far better candidate for the position of Cleaner than I was in those early periods. Certainly the body count from his actions never approached mine."

"You propose that we offer him a place and a position, then?" Therman questioned skeptically.

"He belongs here, yes." Grace was adamant.

"Duke Crocker, do you desire a place in Sanctuary?" Therman asked, turning the focus of the meeting to him.

"I have no idea." Duke answered honestly. "I can't say I'm impressed with your hospitality so far. I only came because Grace thought I'd be welcome here. If she was wrong then I'll take my leave."

"And go where? You must realize you can never return to your homeworld."

"I'm sure Grace could help me find a place to settle down. She promised to escort me where I wanted to go if I chose not to stay here. And since you guys seem to be bigger jerks than the ones running Haven, I'm beginning to think this isn't the place for me."

Grace drew in her breath as if to speak but bit her lips and held her tongue when Therman held up a hand for her silence. Duke could tell it was a struggle for her to control herself.

"If you two would wait in the next room, the council must confer." He told them, his face unreadable.

Grace leveled a glare that should have melted something and then spun on one heel, leading the way back through the door. They hadn't even sat down in the comfortable chairs in the conference room.

"Pigheaded, pompous, pissant, piles of putrescence…" Duke heard her muttering heatedly as she stalked over to an easy chair and threw herself down.

"So, it's going well then?" Duke asked blandly.

"They'll welcome you or they'll lose me." Grace growled fiercely. "They're idiots if they don't realize what an asset you'd be as a Cleaner."

"What's a "Cleaner"?"

"Croatoan isn't the only egomaniac messing with aether and your planet isn't the only one that has been troubled. There are countless worlds that touch the Void. Cleaners, like me, work to eliminate troubles and those who create them. Sometimes it's quick and easy. Sometimes it takes centuries. Sometimes what we set up as solutions, like the Teagues and their Guard organization, turn out to work against us."

"The Guard helped a lot of people." Duke admitted reluctantly.

"Creating a town where the troubled were concentrated was a mistake. It focused Mara and Croatoan's attention on you. Willem regretted that move but by the time he realized his mistake Haven was already too well entrenched. Then again, the troubled seem to congregate whether someone sets up a system and a haven for them or not." Grace was distracted into brooding about troubled populations.

"Something like the Roanoak Colony?"

"That was the direct result of Croatoan's tampering." She allowed herself to be diverted. "He tried out his first troubles immediately following his banishment there. He discovered the energy he could draw from the troubled when he returned, desperate for a cure after a sting from one of the crabs in the Void. Even after all these years the sheer magnitude of coincidence that was required to create Croatoan baffles me. How could something so fundamentally flawed survive for so long?"

Duke shrugged slightly. He had no illusions that life was ever going to be fair. It was actually somewhat humorous that someone as old as Grace might maintain the fantasy that there was justice available in this screwed up universe.

After a wait long enough to see Duke dozing on the sofa, Tehani appeared at the door and gestured them in.

"Grace, the council is not pleased with the outcome of this mission. You will be expected to check regularly on Croatoan for any signs that he is returning to the dark path he was on." Therman began ponderously. Grace let out an angry huff but said nothing.

"As for your protégé, we will allot him six months probation to demonstrate his ability to fit in with our community. If, at the end of that time, he has proven to be a productive citizen, then he will be granted full citizenship."

Duke had his poker face on, revealing nothing.

"Tomorrow I will expect you both to report to the Center – you to fill out and file your reports and Duke to begin orientation. You will be his mentor, Grace, and will train him as a Cleaner."

"What if I don't want to be a Cleaner?" Duke asked in a scrupulously neutral voice.

"Our community has a limited number of job opportunities." Therman answered him seriously. "You are a fit for only that of Cleaner. Based on your personality scan, however, I am confident that Grace is correct – you will make an exemplary cleaner. I suspect that you will find the work –" Therman paused, searching for the right word. "—therapeutic – or perhaps I should say, redemptive."

Duke nodded once, his face thoughtful rather than angry.

"This meeting is adjourned. I will see you tomorrow, Grace." Therman said firmly. The screens began blanking out and Tehani, Grace, and Duke left the room. Grace gave a small sigh of relief as the door closed behind them.

"That went pretty well, don't you think, Ani?"

"Any council meeting that doesn't end with you undergoing an evaluation is a good one in my book. Now take this young man home, get some rest, and bring him back for a better dinner tomorrow – you hear me?"

"I do, dear." Grace laughed briefly and then hugged her friend and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "C'mon, Crocker, let's get horizontal for a few hours. I'm beat."

A small yellow vehicle waited outside, just large enough to transport the two of them. Grace and Duke got in and Grace said: "Take me home."

The doors to the vehicle shut and Duke suddenly realized that there was no steering wheel. He grabbed convulsively at his door handle when he realized no one was controlling the car. Grace sighed and leaned her head back.

"Don't worry, it's perfectly safe. It'll take us to my doorstep."

"Tell me you have a bottle of scotch – or something alcoholic." Duke grumbled mildly.

"I do." She told him, closing her eyes. "And I have a kitchen and a bathroom and bed you can help yourself to. Don't stay up too late – you'll want to be rested for tomorrow."

Grace's spare room proved to be both comfortable and strangely bland. The colors were all brown and taupe except for a few accents in navy blue. The double bed, one that would look at home in any bedroom in Haven, was comfortable and molded to his long frame when he stripped down to his briefs and collapsed on it. The curtains over the window had been drawn before he entered so he had no idea what kind of view awaited him, and he didn't much care.

He lay in the bed, body aching with exhaustion and mind racing, and stared blankly up at the ceiling. The drink Grace had given him sat neglected on the stand next to the bed, condensation wetting the cork coaster it sat on as the events of, not just the past day, but the past few months ganged up on him. He felt a sudden stab of anger at Grace for saving him – if he'd truly died he wouldn't be facing this moment. He wouldn't be wondering if he even wanted to go on without Jennifer, Nathan, Audrey and the few other people he cared about.

Jennifer's face formed in his mind's eye – smiling, then frowning and he knew she was unhappy that he would even consider death. He shrugged a half-hearted apology to her memory.

"You don't understand." He muttered to her. "I've lost it all. I'm lost now."

 _"Don't be silly."_ He heard her say gently. _"You'll never lose me. And you won it all for your friends, for Haven."  
_  
"No I didn't." He argued stubbornly. "Nathan lost Audrey – she went away in the Barn with her father."

 _"But he saved her first."_ Jennifer pointed out with that special gift she had for seeing what was most important. _"And he still has Haven and everyone you three saved. He'll be fine, eventually. So will you, if you let yourself."_

This last was offered as sternly as Jennifer's quiet voice could manage. Duke smiled with a mixture of tenderness and loss, visualizing her so clearly.

 _"That's better."_ Jennifer whispered. _"Take Grace up on her offer of a purpose, Duke. Heal. Love again – there's someone out there for you, I promise. And I'll always be with you too."_

He felt a whisper of cold on his cheek, like the breath of a kiss from a December storm and his eyes closed, anger and grief and worry submerging under the weight of the day's efforts. Dying could really take it out of a guy.

In Haven Dwight went home to his daughter, marveling at her presence and grateful to Duke for helping make it possible for her to stay. He knew others were hurting and grieving but at this moment there was nothing left in his heart but love and gratitude that his daughter had been returned to him. Gloria, Vickie and little Aaron were home together, the realization that the troubles were gone just starting to sink in. Vickie was sketching Aaron as he struggled to keep his eyes open – he was up way past his bedtime but neither woman wanted the evening to end. And Nathan sat on the couch in his little house, looking at the picture of Audrey he'd rescued from the police station and wondering if he could keep his promise to her to go on. They'd won and yet it was so empty without her and without Duke. He needed to process Duke's death, and the fact that he had killed his friend, but it was overshadowed by the aching loss of Audrey. Not even the ability to feel the evening breeze coming through his open window could distract his mind from the fact that the two people he loved best in the world were gone.

"Tomorrow's another day." He finally sighed, putting the picture down on the coffee table in front of him. "Still have to explain what happened here in Haven the past few months. Still need causes for the deaths that won't bring the government alphabets down on us, even if we don't have Troubles anymore. I just wish you were here to navigate the road ahead with me, Audrey."

He took the pillow she'd used from the bedroom and laid down on the sofa, holding it to him like a stuffed animal. It smelled like her and the scent soothed him more than it hurt. Slowly his eyes slid shut and he drifted off to sleep, dreaming of Audrey and Duke.

The next day started off in a whirl of activity. Grace provided coffee and fruit and croissants and then she sent him into what originally looked like a closet, ordering him to strip before she closed the door. He pondered that for a moment but curiosity got the better of him and he obeyed just to see what was going to happen. What happened was a bar of red light which came from all four corners of the tiny white box he was in. The bars of light started at his head and moved down along his body. When they reached the soles of his feet they vanished and a section of the blank white wall in front of him turned into a screen with a menu.

Duke studied the options and quickly realized that this was an offering of clothing. The menu was easy to master and Duke made a selection of comfortable, warm clothing. Simple blue jeans, sensible hiking boots, a sleeveless undershirt with a soft blue long-sleeved knit over that. His tan jacket would do if the weather turned out to be less clement than he'd seen so far.

Clothed and feeling a little less vulnerable, Duke joined Grace in her kitchen. She wore another long, flowing skirt. It was made of a light cotton-like material and navy blue at the bottom that lightened in shade until it was almost white at the waist. Her shirt was also cotton, a loose white smock with long sleeves that could have doubled as wings if she raised her arms. She also had on a blue sleeveless vest that fell to mid-thigh. She examined Duke's clothing and nodded with an approving smile.

"Excellent choices – shall we?"

Walking down the streets of Sanctuary Duke noticed differences between it and Haven. Many of the buildings were the same and some of the people looked similar, or identical, to people he'd known in Haven but there were variations as well. There was no lighthouse. Where the Church on Green had been there was a building that could have been anything, from a warehouse to offices – although the lack of windows argued against offices in Duke's mind.

Grace led them through town to a building that looked exactly like Haven Memorial. Duke stopped, his suspicions flaring. Grace managed to sigh and smile simultaneously.

"Yes, it's a hospital – it's also houses our Cleaning operation. The doctors here will wish to examine what skills you carry and how well you've mastered them. We have rooms that are specifically constructed to allow you to practice some of the more destructive skills safely. Sometimes you will be able to practice other skills on human volunteers. Being housed in a hospital increases the safety factor."

Duke could find nothing to argue with in that explanation and followed Grace through the glass doors silently. She was well aware that his suspicion hadn't abated, however.

 _"We go our separate ways here, Duke."_ Grace warned him silently as they approached a desk identical to the admittance room in Haven Memorial. " _If you need me just call out for me with your mind – I'll be listening for you."_

"Mr. Crocker? Please come this way."

The young woman looked like Vickie Dutton but seemed more confident than the woman Duke remembered. With one more uneasy look at Grace, which elicited an encouraging smile from her, Duke followed the slender blond.

Grace sighed again and turned to the receptionist.

"He's waiting for you, Grace." The man told her nodding in the other direction.

"Thanks, Samuel." Grace nodded back and strode down the other hallway, making her way unerringly to Therman's office.

He smiled warmly when she entered the room but her grim expression never lifted.

"What was the meaning of last night?" She demanded before the door had even shut behind her.

Therman took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He looked enough like Vince Teagues to have been a close relative but his salt and pepper dark hair was cut short to his head and he lacked Vince's vibrant complexion. He looked like Vince's younger brother who had been office bound rather than an active outdoorsman for the majority of his life.

"That was Tehani's call." He told Grace, surprising her into silence. "She said Duke would resist a warm welcome and if we wanted him to stay we'd have to make him work for it. You know she's the best we've got at assessing newcomers."

"That is why she lives right by the entrance." Grace agreed unwillingly. "And this "orientation" garbage…?"

"Val was _not_ happy to be roped into that." Therman chuckled briefly. "She's just going to give him a basic physical and go over Sanctuary's layout and record as many of his skills as he's willing to share with us. If he asks she'll explain the history of Sanctuary."

"I've already given him the bare bones." Grace told Therman.

"That's good because we need to send you back out again. P357 has been visited by a troublemaker. I'm not sure who it is but they're experienced. These troubles are complex and very destructive."

"P357? I haven't heard of that world, have I?"

"No. Shyla found it while you were on P423."

"And are these are established troubles?"

"At least as long as those on P423." Therman confirmed.

"And the Troublemaker? Do you think we'll find them there?"

"Shyla saw no sign of the Troublemaker but she didn't stay very long. You know how skittish she is in the presence of troubles."

"Wise of her. All she can do is cloak her presence from the common forms of detection."

"We can't all carry multiple skills." Therman observed with a trace of irritation.

"I know, that's why Duke Crocker is so important."

"We agree. I just wish we didn't have to walk the fine line of making him work for acceptance here until he feels more comfortable."

"I guess my next move is a conference with Tehani." Grace decided. "Then I'll collect Duke and we'll head to P357. At least he can cloak and communicate mentally when he desires. Took to it like a pro."

"Be careful, Grace. Duke is untested. Even with Tehani's input we can't be sure how he'll react in the field."

"He'll be fine, Therman. He was tested plenty on Earth."

"Go, get ready to head out. P357 is heading towards a crisis."

"Is Shyla back? I'll need to debrief her about the inhabitants before we go."

"Yes, she's in her office."

"Okay, Shyla then Tehani, then I'll collect Duke and brief him."

"Give him this." Therman held out a pendant that looked something like an Asian symbol on a simple chain. "It will grant him access through all thinnies other than ours."

"He's trustworthy, Therman."

"He turned on his own people, Grace."

"He was being controlled."

"And until we know he can't be controlled by another Troublemaker he's on probation. That's non-negotiable."

"You know, Therman, there's no guarantee I can't be controlled by another Troublemaker either." Grace pointed out, stashing the pendant in a pocket in her vest. She closed the door behind her as Therman struggled for a response to that observation.

Shyla explained that the humans of P357 were in the very beginning of an industrial age and the society most affected by the Troublemaker was primarily matriarchal. She provided images of the people and their clothing, noting that Grace's flaming red hair would draw attention as would her fair complexion. Grace stifled her groan of dismay. She hated how changing her hair color made her scalp itch for a week. At least Duke would fit in fairly well with no alterations.

Once she had a handle on the situation on P357 Grace made her way to the office set aside for her use (which she barely visited) and called her friend Tehani.

"Duke and I have a mission already so talk fast – what do I need to know about him?" She opened their conversation briskly.

"Miffed at me about last night?" Tehani countered with a slight chuckle. "You'll realize I'm right soon enough. Your instincts on Duke are pretty good but he's not you. When you were freed from the control of your Troublemaker you were nearly consumed by guilt. You threw yourself into your task of Cleaner to redeem the damage you had a hand in. Duke is angrier. He would love to have an opportunity to take his revenge on Croatoan. He doesn't feel he can be a positive influence for others. On a very deep level he feels that he is cursed and everything he tries doomed to harm others – that's why he jumped on dying as the solution to Croatoan stealing the troubles within him."

"So, he's a bleeding mess under a façade of cynicism and attitude."

"I'm torn between pushing you two through the thinnie myself and keeping him here under the care of a mind healer until the worst of his self-hatred is addressed." Tehani said frankly. "But I think throwing him into work will ultimately be the most therapeutic. Keep your empathy on alert, though. He's one bad experience away from a total meltdown – and he is the most skilled person we've seen since Willem."

"I understand." Grace assured her friend seriously. "I still remember how I felt when Willem found me in the wreckage of my settlement and managed to talk me back to sanity. I'll watch him closely."

"If anyone can get him through this initial period of recovery, it will be you."

"What about Cenna? Should we bring her in before the mission?"

"Not now – he's not ready for that at all."

"Does she know about him?"

"I don't think so. I'll prepare her for him while you two are working."

"She'll be ready for him when we return, then. I'll do what I can to keep him from imploding or exploding in the meantime."

"You're such a mother." Tehani laughed. "When are you going to find the right partner and raise a few more red-headed rescuers?"

"When there aren't so many Troublemakers running around ruining lives. Now leave me alone and let me prepare for this mission."

"Grace, when you get back you need to visit Cenna too." Tehani said seriously. "No more putting it off. I know the date even if you're pretending you don't."

Grace didn't respond verbally but she did nod once before ending the conference. She left her office and stopped by the receptionist desk.

"Samuel, I need two kits for a mission. Here are the requirements." She handed over a page of Shyla's work to the receptionist. "We'll be back in an hour for them. Sorry about the short notice."

"Not to worry." Samuel told her pleasantly. "It's a slow day today. Your protégé is in the cafeteria with Valerie, by the way."

"Thanks, that'll save me a few steps."

"Eat something while you're down there." Samuel called after her as she headed for the stairs.

"Okay, Mom, will do!" She called back.

The cafeteria was in the basement so Grace ducked into the stairwell and took the stairs down. She never took elevators if she could help it; she had a touch of claustrophobia. It took her a few minutes to reach the cafeteria and a few more minutes to collect a salad and mug of milky tea. Val waved her over with enough enthusiasm to warn Grace that Duke was being difficult in some way. She seemed a little too relieved when Grace joined them at a corner table.

"Giving Valerie a hard time, Duke?" Grace asked with poorly concealed amusement.

Duke spread his hands in a "perish the thought" expression.

"Well, Valerie, don't take this the wrong way but I'm going to have to steal Duke away from you. We've got a mission."

"We haven't finished the paperwork Therman wants." Valerie argued with ill-concealed relief.

"Don't worry about it, Val, I'll make it right with Therman." Grace assured the young woman. "He's the one who gave me the assignment so he can just wait for his paperwork." Grace added with a conspiratorial grin at the other two people. Valerie's return grin was more sickly than cheerful but Duke's answering grin was appreciative.

"In that case…" Val waffled nervously.

"Get out of here, Val. I need to confer with my intern." Grace ordered her genially.

"What have you been doing to the poor girl, Duke?" Grace asked as Val made good her escape.

"Mostly just asking questions." Duke answered with a touch of mischief.

"And she doesn't know how much to tell you so now she's all discombobulated. Unkind of you to take out your frustration on her. She's a good kid." Grace said blandly around a mouthful of greens. She slid paperwork across the table to Duke. "Read this while you finish your meal. We have a job to do."

"What about orientation?"

"I told Therman I wanted you with me."

"And Therman gives you what you want?"

"Mostly. I'm the best Cleaner they've got since Willem retired." Grace answered with a remarkable lack of humility.

"Hmmm…" Duke's gaze grew speculative and Grace began to smile.

"Yes, I have no doubt you will be an excellent Cleaner and yes that will grant you a fair amount of leeway in our community." She answered his unspoken thought.

"So what's up with this mission? Why is it so urgent that we need to leave right now?"

"They haven't said, which tells me they don't actually know. P357 has only recently been discovered so we're going in with less than optimal intelligence. Generally this level of urgency means a precog has had a vision or a dream of disaster."

"What do you people care, anyway? So a world is destroyed – what's it matter to you?"

"To me personally it matters because I've been responsible for too many lives lost. I want to save any and everyone I can. To Sanctuary in general it matters because disaster means the potential for the Void to consume another world. Our top scientists speculate that if that happens too often the Void will reach a tipping point where it can consume all our worlds."

Duke's fingers drummed a beat on the battered table.

"Guess we better go clean up a mess then." He was clearly torn between relief that there was action looming and a fear that he would somehow curse this mission and doom an entire planet or more.

"Familiarize yourself with the people, Duke." She told him briskly, tapping the papers. "Then I need to report to imaging for a makeover. We'll both need appropriate clothing and then we'll pick up our kits from Samuel and head out. Oh, and before I forget…" She fished out the pendant Therman had given her. "This will get you through thinnies. Not the one leading here but all the others."

Duke's eyes widened briefly in surprise but he put the necklace on willingly and began to read the material Shyla had given Grace. Grace finished her meal quickly and they headed to a room few in Sanctuary even knew existed.

"Hey Steve." She greeted the tall, thin man behind the desk.

"No – Steve? Really?" Duke unsuccessfully hid a grin behind his hand.

"What's wrong with my name?" Steve bristled slightly.

"Nothing – it's just that a friend of mine used to call someone who looked a lot like you "Steve". He was a good guy."

"Steve, I've got to blend in with these people." She handed a picture to Stan's twin. "Can you help me?"

"Of course I can." Steve grinned at her. "But you're going to complain the entire time."

"It makes me itch!" She grumbled.

Steve stared at the picture she'd given him in total concentration. Grace's lips thinned as her skin and scalp began to crawl. Duke watched in fascination as her hair darkened to the color of a roasted coffee bean and her skin took on a darker hue. When he finally looked up she looked like she could have been Duke's sister, except for her blue eyes.

"No." Grace said firmly before Steve could speak. "You are not messing with my eyes. Blue may be rare but it's not unheard of with them so just leave it."

"Wouldn't dream of changing your eye color." Steve said hastily. "Lisa is in her office."

"Nice meeting you, Steve." Duke waved at the man as Grace stalked out of the room, twitching slightly in an effort not to scratch the multitude of itches she now had.

Lisa was in the room next door. She started when Grace entered the room but relaxed again when she recognized the changed woman.

"Need to be outfitted, I assume?"

"Yep – new world, new culture. Here's an info packet to work from."

Lisa looked at it then examined Grace and Duke. She fingered Grace's skirt and shirt and deemed them satisfactory in material but the skirt's colors she changed to shades of red and brown. The vest she held and the soft wool transformed into a very light and supple deerskin. The shape of the vest remained the same but brightly colored patterns made from dyed porcupine quills flowed around the hem.

"That'll do." Lisa decided, drawing in a few deep breaths. "Now for you…"

First she changed Duke's jeans into the same light deerskin that now made up Grace's vest. Similar patterns made their way up the outside length of the pants legs. Then his lightweight knit shirt became a cotton smock, gathered at the wrists by a deerskin cord. A leather belt formed around his waist as his undershirt vanished and on the leather belt was a hide pouch. Then Lisa disappeared through a door behind her and reappeared with two soft leather bags that could be slung over their shoulders.

"A change of clothing, nightclothes, and cleaning and repair kits for your stuff." She explained when Duke gave her a questioning look. "Samuel will have the rest of your gear at the receptionist desk – but he doesn't do culturally appropriate clothing."

"Samuel will have knives, flint, basic first aid supplies and that sort of thing for us in our kits." Grace expanded on Lisa's explanation, studying their new looks and nodding with satisfaction. "Thanks, Lisa, your work is perfect, as always."

"Why did you have Lisa change our clothes?" Duke asked as Grace led the way back to the reception room. "You changed mine in Haven."

"That was an illusion, Duke." Grace told him. "I suppose I could copy Lisa and Steve's talents but, frankly, I feel like I have too damn many as it is."

"I can understand that." Duke agreed bleakly.

"I know you can. Let's just kit up and go see what's happening on this new world."

Very shortly Duke and Grace exited another yellow vehicle in front of Tehani's home. They each had their soft leather bags slung across their bodies and long knives sheathed around their waists. They also had sturdy walking sticks.

"Leaving so soon?" Tehani called from her porch.

"Troubles don't wait for my convenience, dear." Grace called back. "We'll see you when we see you."

Tehani waved at them and Grace took Duke's hand. Holding Grace's hand Duke could see the thinnie in front of them. He had a moment to wonder if this was the right choice for him and then Grace pulled him through the green curtain into the Void.

"So," she said as soon as they were through the thinnie, "what do you think of Sanctuary?"

"I think you're right." Duke told her as they set off through the Void. "Something is wrong. It's nothing I can put my finger on but people just seemed off – more than them being new to me."

"I half hoped I was wrong." Grace sighed. "Thank you, by the way, for doing this. You barely know me and you don't know Sanctuary at all. You really do have a Cleaner's heart, you know."

"Don't tell anyone." Duke grumbled. "I have a reputation to maintain."


	2. Chapter 2

Season Six Episode Two

Schisms

Grace and Duke emerged from the void in the deep woods. They were eerily familiar to Duke, virtually identical to the woods he'd explored and played in during his youth, but there was something about them that was also a little off. Grace looked around, a nostalgic smile on her lips and inhaled deeply.

"This place smells like my childhood home." She observed quietly and her eyes sparkling with happy memories. Duke sniffed the air.

The indefinable scent of green growing things, rich earth and crisp evergreens filled his nostrils and he suddenly realized what was different here – no scent of the ocean. He was surprised by a pang of homesickness.

"It seems that most of the worlds we have discovered are parallel to our own worlds." Grace explained, not appearing to notice his sudden melancholy. "That's why you keep seeing familiar faces everywhere we go. You might find a few here but this is a world where Europe didn't discover the "new country" – so you won't see Nathan or Dwight here."

"How are we even supposed to speak to these people?" Duke asked. "No European influence means they don't speak English – right?"

"Duke, we don't speak English in Sanctuary. You'll understand and speak the native tongue because I gave you a microscopic translator chip before you regained consciousness in Haven. You will be able to understand these people like a native because you can understand and speak to anyone speaking a language that follows the basics of human communication."

"That's convenient." Duke noted. Grace laughed lightly.

"That it is." She closed her eyes and concentrated then gestured to Duke to follow her as she made her way through the forest. After several silent minutes walking they left the woods for a rough road that had clearly been leveled and purposely covered with stones that had been shaped to give a fairly level surface – something like a cobblestone road. It was the width of what would have been one car lane in Haven and had dirt ditches running along each edge.

"We want to go this way." Grace gestured with her walking stick.

"Just what is it you hope to do when we get there?" Duke wanted to know. "I mean these people don't know us at all."

"It depends on them, really. If the situation is as dire as I suspect then they will welcome any hope of salvation. Sometimes I need to apply some empathic pressure to get them to accept aid."

"And sometimes you just get a puppet from their group." Duke noted with a voice so bland it shouted his suspicion. Grace laughed, hiding her sorrow at his stubborn mistrust and throwing Duke off guard.

"I would not presume to consider you my puppet, Duke." She assured him with unmistakable sincerity. "Your choices in Haven were yours. All I did was to provide you with the tools to help your friends."

Duke was silent, recalling the events from the previous, chaotic day. Grace was right – she really hadn't told him anything except that Nathan and Audrey had to face Croatoan together, and he'd already known that.

"We are here." Grace said quietly as they rounded a curve in the road and saw two hide shelters on either side of the road about a hundred yards in front of them.

Two men stepped out of the shelters with drawn bows and one fired, the arrow plunging into the earth just in front of Grace.

"No closer, evil one!" One of the men called defiantly.

Grace halted obediently, keeping her hands conspicuously visible on her walking stick. Duke stopped next to her, unconsciously adopting the same pose as Grace.

"Join us, brother." The other man called to Duke. "You are safe from her now."

Duke's brows rose in surprise but he kept his face impassive.

 _"Go ahead, Duke. One of us needs to find out what's going on."_ Grace urged him silently.

Duke shrugged and stepped forward. Grace ignored the threat of the bows pointed at her and studied the men. One had long hair, braided neatly on either side of his face. He was wearing a leather vest but no shirt and leather pants and moccasins. Around his throat he had a torc of braided copper with copper ornaments that had a distinctly Aztecan flavor to them. The other man had short hair on the sides and longer, spiked hair down the center of his head. He wore only leather pants and moccasins but had a bronze arm ring around his bicep. Both men were young, barely out of their teens in Grace's estimation.

"Does the evil one trust you?" The man who had urged Duke to join them asked as soon as he reached them.

"Yes." Duke answered honestly.

"Will she allow you to bind and hood her?"

"Probably, but why would I want to do that?"

"So that we may safely escort her to the garden to join the other evil ones. Otherwise we must kill her now."

Duke hid his shock fairly well.

"I assume you have supplies for this?" He asked in a carefully neutral voice as soon as he was sure had his expression under control. The men handed him rope and a supple cloth hood.

"Her eyes must be completely covered. If she attempts to speak and bespell us she will be killed immediately. Make her understand."

"Got it - no eyes, no speaking." Duke assured them before walking back to Grace.

"You heard that, right?" He asked her as he returned.

" _Yes. I don't like us being split up like this but I don't think we have a choice. We appear to have arrived in the middle of the crisis."_

 _"You think?"_ Duke asked her as he began tying her hands together in front of her body, sarcasm thick in his mental voice.

 _"Yes, I do think."_ Duke could hear a smile in her voice. _"Just be very careful. It is ethical in this situation to scan their surface thoughts. And listen out for me. If need be we teleport out of the village and meet back at the thinnie in the woods - but that's a last resort, okay?"_

 _"I've been in tight spots before, Grace. Don't worry about me, worry about yourself. I haven't been labeled an "evil one" like you have."_

 _"Yes, that's very disturbing."_ Grace tamely submitted to having the hood pulled over her head and walked docilely forward with Duke's hand on her elbow guiding her. _"These people are matriarchal which makes this kind of response to females unprecedented in my experience."_

" _Sounds like a Trouble to me."_

"Now what?" Duke asked as he approached the two men again with Grace beside him.

"Now Fernult will escort you and the evil one to the garden. After she has been contained you will attend our leader and explain what has brought you to our home."

 _"And just what am I supposed to tell them?"_ Duke asked Grace.

 _"Tell them the truth. We've come from far away because we heard they needed help. Don't try to get them to trust me, though. Whatever it is that has spooked them about women it isn't going to be corrected by a stranger."_

Grace listened closely as they walked, hearing male voices and subdued activity but nothing like what she expected from the thriving community Shyla had described to her. She stumbled occasionally over the uneven road but Duke kept hold of her elbow and steadied her as they made their way deeper into the settlement.

 _"Men, some boys, no infants or toddlers."_ Duke noted as they walked. _"At least half of the homes show signs of neglect."_

 _"Even without women doesn't this place seem..._ muted _to you?"_ She asked him, her mental voice a mere whisper as if the silence was affecting her too. Duke's gaze sharpened as he looked around again, now noting how many men seemed pale and tired.

"You will remain within the walls of the garden at all times, evil one." Fernult said, breaking into their silent communication as he halted outside of a tall fence woven from saplings and willow. "If so much as a hair is exposed outside this barrier you will be killed immediately. Nod if you understand."

Grace nodded once and heard the creaking of a wooden gate. Duke urged her forward but his hand left her elbow as soon as she began walking. She walked cautiously forward, hands in front of her until she heard the creaking of the gate behind her. She stopped immediately, cautiously lifting her hands to the hood over her face.

"Greetings, sister, let us help you." She heard the quiet voice beside her and started slightly. Hands tugged off the hood and a second pair of hands worked on the knots binding Grace's wrists together.

"The man who bound you cares for you." The first woman observed. Grace blinked, adjusting her eyes to seeing more than the inside of a sack again. The woman who had spoken was young, in her late teens or early twenties, with dark hair and eyes and a face that seemed unaccustomed to the lines of worry and sorrow on it. She was dressed much like Grace in a mixture of cotton and leather in earth tones. Copper hoops hung from the ears of both women.

"He's a friend." Grace admitted hesitantly, hoping it wouldn't get either her or Duke in trouble.

"He did not bind you tightly or cruelly."

The ropes released and Grace rubbed her wrists lightly, even though the woman was correct that the bindings hadn't been tight or uncomfortable. The other woman folded the hood and coiled the rope and placed them beside the gate. The first woman gestured to Grace to follow her and they went deeper into the compound.

Grace could see why they called it the "garden". An orchard with flowering trees and bushes quickly hid the fence containing the area from view. When they emerged from the orchard she saw at least two dozen women and girls working on plots of ground. Grace recognized corn, squashes, tomatoes, potatoes, herbs and grains.

"Grandmother is this way." Grace's guide said, pointing to the collection of hide covered shelters on the far side of the garden plots and all in a row along the back fence. Grace followed her silently, noting everything and filing it away for future use.

On the other side of the fence Duke was being escorted to "Grandfather" and, like Grace, following his guide silently but observing everything. He was escorted to a large stone and milled wood structure in the center of the village. Inside the building they went through a short hallway into a large central room. Grandfather was seated on a chair on a dais in the middle of the room. Fernult strode into the room to stand directly before the chair, Duke following a step behind. Fernult nodded his head respectfully to the older man and waited patiently.

Duke examined Grandfather – a strong looking man who couldn't have been older than fifty. His dark hair had white streaks the width of a palm at each temple. His face was lined and, while currently set in lines of sorrow and worry, looked like it was more accustomed to smiling. The man's dark eyes were intelligent and obviously weighing Duke as thoroughly as Duke was weighing Grandfather. His inspection complete, Duke also nodded his head in a respectful bow.

"Why have you come to our home, stranger?" Grandfather's voice was vibrant, with none of the quaver of advanced age.

"My companion and I come from far away." Duke replied cautiously. "We learned of your need and hoped to help."

"We do not speak of the evil ones." Fernult scolded instantly.

"I apologize. We – _I_ am somewhat experienced with unusual troubles. If you tell me what's going on, perhaps I can be of assistance."

"A month ago a stranger came to town." Grandfather said, his voice measured and the words sounding like they were the result of careful consideration. Grandfather had clearly been pondering this problem, perhaps even moments before Duke had arrived. "He said that he sought shelter for a few nights – that his people had been overcome by a strange disease. Grandmother ordered him quarantined."

Duke nodded when Grandfather paused. The older man didn't quite smile but the courteous gesture clearly pleased him.

"The next morning we found four men dead, their women unharmed beside them. The stranger had vanished but another strange man arrived with a tale of a disease that made women evil."

Duke inhaled sharply but restrained the skeptical words that hovered on the tip of his tongue.

"Yes, we felt the same." Grandfather assured him sadly. "But the next morning more men were dead, their women unharmed beside them."

"So you quarantined the women?" Duke guessed.

"Indeed, and the deaths ceased."

"I can see why women are quarantined," Duke said slowly, "but evil?"

"The second stranger spread that notion and I'm afraid that I have been unable to change the thinking of the young men we have left. They fear our women."

"Have any of you spoken to the women? Learned if anything has been done to them?"

"Two of our wisemen entered the woman's compound to discuss the illness with our wisewomen. They died that night, like the other men. Now there is only silence between the genders."

"What happened to the two strangers?"

"The one vanished overnight and the other stayed with us only long enough to sow fear and distrust and then left. We are not of the practice of holding strangers against their will so he was allowed to depart unhindered. Grandmother and I were in agreement that he was better gone anyway."

Duke noticed that unlike every man he'd seen until this moment that Grandfather wore no metal jewelry. He had a leather neckpiece with ornately carved wooden "charms" but no other personal ornaments. It was different, so he noticed it and filed it away but he had no idea of the significance – or if there was any significance at all.

Duke frowned and looked down, his arms folded and the fingers of his left hand tapping out a beat on his forearm as he considered.

"It is possible for me to speak with my companion silently and from a distance." Duke admitted at last. "If you are willing I will take the chance of doing so. This trouble has worked hard to separate the men and women of this tribe – which suggests to me that the solution is for the men and women to work together to solve this crisis."

"Grandfather, he will die!" Fernult protested.

"He is a warrior, grandson, well able to choose whether or not to risk his life. Do not be deceived, this is a war and our enemy is _not_ our women." Grandfather answered with more passion than Duke had heard yet. He turned his attention to Duke. "You may communicate with your woman. I hope that it does not lead to your death."

"Yeah, me too." Duke muttered quietly to himself.

Fernult was sent back to his guard post and Grandfather escorted Duke to his home. It was dusk and the two men shared a meal. Duke was accustomed to new food choices thanks to his travels around his world. This meal was fairly tame compared to some he had eaten. Grandfather served them a stew that was mostly meat with roots and herbs that were unfamiliar, but not unpleasant, to Duke. Along with it came hard biscuit-like bread that that was heavy with acorns. Grandfather crumbled his into his stew and Duke followed his lead.

"You may rest here tonight." Grandfather said as he and Duke cleaned up after the meal. "Tomorrow we will discuss this situation further."

"Thank you." Duke told the older man with complete sincerity.

"It is I who am grateful for your presence, Duke." Grandfather responded gravely. "I don't know what has caused this conflict between the men and women of this village but it is wrong."

"You don't feel that the women are evil, do you?" Duke asked, noting that it was sorrow Grandfather showed not anger or fear.

"They are not. Even if they are responsible in some way for the deaths of the men it was not done deliberately."

"I will confer with my companion and share what I learn in the morning." Duke assured his host before heading into the bathroom, with running water and an indoor toilet that was clearly state-of-the-art for this place.

In the compound Grace and Grandmother also shared a meal but their meal was taken in the largest, central tent as a community. Several of the women were nursing infants and toddlers and several of those were male. Grandmother saw her interest in the young males and smiled, wrinkles at the corners of her eyes deepening as she did so.

"No, they are no danger to us at that age. The boys of an age to begin manhood training must be sent through the gate, however." Grandmother explained.

"What has happened here?" Grace asked bluntly. "There would be no infants if this segregation of the sexes wasn't a very new thing."

"You are most correct." Grandmother agreed. She then shared with Grace almost the same story that Grandfather had told Duke except that in her story it was the women who died and the women choose to be segregated in the garden as a protection from whatever it was that had killed the other women.

"So the women don't blame the men or consider them evil?" Grace asked.

"Most of them don't – a few of the younger women… hotheads…" Grandmother's voice faded sadly.

Grace took a deep breath and then let it out slowly.

"I need to sleep on this." She told Grandmother. "Perhaps tomorrow will bring clarity."

"You are a woman of wisdom." Grandmother approved. "We will discuss more when Father Sun has greeted Mother Earth."

Grace was directed to a small, but weatherproof shelter. She appreciated the tiny size because it meant she didn't need to share with anyone. She wanted to think, after she conferred with Duke. She entered the tent, prepared for sleep, grateful that she'd been allowed to keep all her belongings, and then stretched out on the pallet of dried grass and hides.

 _"Duke?"_ She sent her thought very quietly. _"Can you talk?"_

 _"Yes."_ He responded strongly and immediately. _"I've been waiting for you to contact me. I didn't want to interrupt anything."_

 _"Don't hesitate in the future – I can and will let you know if it's a bad time."_

Grace told him, her mental "voice" strengthening. _"What have you discovered?"  
_  
Duke shared his conversation with Grandfather and Grace filled him in on what Grandmother had told her. They concurred that the fact that the stories were similar in the main and differed only on the genders of the dead was significant but neither had any idea what to do with that knowledge. Finally Grace decided they had reached the end of useful conversation.

 _"We simply need more data."_ She pointed out, and Duke agreed wordlessly. _"Sleep well but be cautious. This is undoubtedly a Trouble but it has an intentional feel to it. Someone is pulling strings. They won't be pleased we are here and they may well try to take us out of the equation."_

 _"I wish we weren't separated."_ Duke admitted unhappily. _"We could each watch the others back if we were together."_

 _"No doubt that's part of the reason these people have been separated so thoroughly."_

 _"No doubt."_ Duke agreed. _"Sleep well."_

He felt oddly alone when her presence vanished from his mind. He'd spent most of his life alone, or wishing he was alone, so missing someone he barely knew was definitely a peculiar sensation. But Grace was comfortable – she understood him in ways not one person in Haven had, not even Audrey. Audrey had demonstrated huge blind spots when it came to Duke, contrary to her otherwise insightful nature, but then she had been accustomed to dealing with fairly straightforward issues and Duke was nothing if not complicated. Duke drifted off to sleep wondering how Haven was faring now with the troubles gone.

In Haven, Nathan was sipping on the glass of whisky he'd allowed himself and making lists of repairs that needed to be made, people whose disappearance needed explaining, resources desperately needed and who could best deal with each issue. Gloria and Vicky sat at Gloria's kitchen table writing out autopsy reports and death certificates by the score. And Dwight had finished kissing his daughter goodnight and sat down in his living room to face his friend McHugh - who handed him a tumbler of something amber. Dwight smiled, realizing this had to be something his friend had stashed for a rainy day. McHugh grinned back, knowing what Dwight was thinking as only a good friend could.

"Yeah, so I kept a few bottles aside." He admitted, holding his own glass up in a silent toast that Dwight responded to by clinking his own glass against the one offered.

"I'm glad." Dwight confessed, taking a swallow. "It will be a while before we get luxuries like this."

"I think, if we don't go on a bender, I can keep us supplied until a shipment comes in."

"I haven't thanked you." Dwight told the man seriously.

"What's a little alcohol between friends?" McHugh asked, trying to make light of his friend's gratitude. Dwight cocked an admonishing eyebrow.

"I mean it, man." He pushed on. "You've been here this whole time, helped with Lizzie and I don't know what I'd have done without your help."

"Enough." McHugh was blushing. "You'd do the same for me. Now what's up for tomorrow?"

"Need you to go through the Guard and sort out who can help with rebuilding and who can help with the injured and who can help with the hundred other issues facing us." Dwight replied, savoring another swallow of his drink. "Haven isn't out of the woods yet and Nathan can't do this by himself. You and I know the Guard better than anyone. I'm going to work with the ones we can throw into uniforms and use as a police force."

"You really think we're going to have problems with lawbreakers _now_?"

"Humans are humans." Dwight noted, relaxing as the alcohol seeped through his system. "But mostly it's about us needing to look as normal as possible. The alphabets are bound to start showing up by tomorrow."

McHugh nodded, realizing Dwight was right. They'd been lucky to have a day to regroup and prepare as many cover stories as possible over the past twenty four hours.

"Okay, I'll do that before I hit the sack tonight. I'll have teams set up by breakfast tomorrow."

"I knew I could count on you." Dwight finished his glass an looked over at McHugh soberly. "You got any ideas about Nathan?"

McHugh frowned.

"What about Nathan?"

"The man's barely hanging on, McHugh."

"No." McHugh disagreed. "He's hurting but he's stronger than you think."

Dwight sighed looking into the bottom of his empty glass.

"I wish Audrey was still here."

All McHugh could do was nod in agreement.

In Sanctuary there were two meetings. The first was at Tehani's house where she hosted a small gathering with three of her friends. Maris was very dark with short, black, curly hair. Like Tehani she favored bright colors and patterns in her clothing and loose, flowing styles. Jevol had skin the color of cappuccino and his curly, light brown hair was almost as long as Tehani's and just as wild. Terric was the oldest of the group and could have been Byron Howard's twin, right down to the way he spoke and moved.

"She is worried." Tehani told the others. "She feels something wrong in Sanctuary and she fears what it might be."

"Does she suspect us? Does she suspect you?" Terric asked seriously.

"She has no idea who I am." Tehani replied seriously. "I think we should tell her, though."

"You know we don't dare. We don't know who is behind the theft or what they are capable of. You must keep her ignorant." Maris responded quickly and decisively.

"She will be very hurt when she discovers my deception." Tehani countered and her companions frowned because it was a complaint they had heard often.

"That is as may be but we must protect ourselves at all costs. We are terribly few." Maris insisted as she usually did.

"Jevol, do we have any leads at all? Do we have any idea who has been corrupted?" Tehani asked, changing the subject.

"Not as yet." Jevol answered quietly. "I am digging as quickly as I can but the council has multiple layers of protection over their private lives and I have already been reprimanded twice for breaching their security. I dare not be caught a third time."

"Are there any who seem more protective of their privacy than the others?"

"I am not sure but Therman is the one who reprimanded me both times. That may just be because he is the leader of Sanctuary, though."

"We have been working on this for years and we grow no closer to answers." Tehani sighed.

"That is not true." Terric countered. "The foe grows bolder and will slip sooner rather than later."

"I hope so." Tehani replied grimly. "It's not just our world that is threatened by this creature."

The other meeting was even more clandestine – two shadows in the darkness of the statue garden.

"They are meeting again – do we take them now?" The unseen speaker had a feminine voice.

"No. They don't know who we are and taking them would tip our hands. Matters are progressing nicely. Soon I will have Grace and her new little friend Duke. _Then_ we will be in a position to deal with those otherworldly spies."

"I don't know that I would use the word "little" to describe that man."

"Compared to me he is positively tiny and he will join me or be crushed." The man replied arrogantly. "Now go finish your research on your virus. I want to have it on hand."

"Very well, Father, if you insist."

The man chuckled and created a thinnie in front of him with a wave of his hand, stepping through as soon as it manifested. The woman sighed with frustration and more than a little impatience with her fellow conspirator's showy departure.

"If they notice you creating thinnies they're going to track us down, damn it!" She muttered to herself and leaving rapidly. Behind her a siren sounded, confirming that her concern about being detected was quite sensible. She lengthened her stride – hurrying without being obvious about it.

She was long gone before law enforcement arrived on the scene.

On P357 Grace was in the middle of a familiar nightmare. She ran through a dark forest, followed by a taunting, familiar voice. Her breath came in sobs and her face stung from the many small branches that had slapped it. Her knees and hands were sore from falling as she tripped over unseen roots. But no matter how fast or how long she ran the voice was there, just behind her, tormenting her.

"You know you were never _really_ free of me, don't you?" He goaded in a voice of gentle reason. "You know I'm stronger than you and I will always be your master."

"No! I don't serve you! You died." She screamed, coming to a stop and glaring around her furiously.

"Come now, be sensible," he crooned in a parody of concern that never failed to infuriate her, "I _can't_ die. I'm immortal."

"Nothing is immortal." Tears dripped down her face and even she didn't know if they were tears of fear or anger.

"I am – and you are and forever will be mine, my fiery magnolia."

"I belong to myself! I will never serve you. _Never!_ " That brought an indulgent chuckle from her tormentor.

"We'll see." He replied in a voice that fairly dripped with smug malice. "Sleep well my dear."

And with that Grace jerked awake – coated in sweat and with the strong fragrance of magnolia in her nostrils – and a large white flower on the ground by her head. She knew without looking that the innermost section of the flower was tinted with red and she shivered through the sweat as she stared at the flower in horror. Duke jerked awake too, her fear flooding through their link to him.

 _"What?! What happened?"_

She winced as his mental voice shouted, triggering the headache that had lurked in the background of her mind.

 _"I'm okay."_ She sent back shakily.

 _"No you aren't."_ He countered firmly. _"You're terrified."_

 _"Okay, yes, I am terrified but it's not because I'm in immediate danger."_

 _"Then what is it? Answer me or I'm going there – primitive superstitions be damned."_

 _"It's – Duke I just had a nightmare but when I woke up there was a magnolia by my head."_

 _"Okay,"_ she could feel Duke relaxing slightly. _"That's no big deal, right? Magnolias grow all over in America. This place is like America, right?"_

 _"Magnolias grow further south and this one is rare and found only very far south. It used to be a favorite of mine."_

 _"Used to be?"_

 _"I hate them now."_ Grace admitted, her trembling finally slowing. Then she looked back at the magnolia flower only to discover it had vanished.

 _"What now?!"_ Duke felt her surge of alarm.

 _"It's gone, Duke! The flower is just gone."_

 _"I'm on my way."_

 _"No! No, stay where you are."_ Grace took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. _"I'm obviously not in imminent danger of harm. Maybe I just dreamed it all."_

 _"You don't really believe that."_ There was no doubt in Duke's mental voice.

 _"No, but the alternative is impossible."_

 _"Why is it impossible?"_

 _"Because he's dead – long time dead."_

There was more hope than conviction in this response and Duke wasn't any more reassured than Grace was.

 _"Get some rest."_ He told her finally and she easily picked up on his misgivings.

 _"I'll be careful, Duke."_ She promised, responding to those misgivings.

 _"Good."_ He told her briefly before severing their connection. He got up and went into the kitchen to make himself a hot drink and found Grandfather already there and the teapot already steaming.

"Bad dreams?" Grandfather asked him shrewdly.

"Sort of." Duke hedged.

"Ahhh, your friend then. Is she safe?"

"Are any of us safe?" Duke prevaricated. "I don't know – she was very frightened but there was no immediate threat that she could see. She told me not to come to her."

"And you would have, in spite of the prohibition?"

"Yes." He admitted briefly. "She's a friend."

"You are loyal." Grandfather smiled approvingly at Duke as he made that pronouncement. "She is fortunate to have you as a friend."

Duke blushed and then cursed inwardly – pirates and criminals had no business blushing!

"Since we are both awake before the birds sing their greeting to Father Sun why don't you tell me what you have learned?" Grandfather asked, kindly ignoring the heightened color in Duke's face.

"It's interesting." Duke replied, taking a sip of the herbal tea Grandfather had placed in front of him. "Grace tells almost the same story you do but the women say it was the women who died and not their men."

Grandfather's head cocked as if he heard an intriguing sound in the distance.

"That _is_ interesting." He agreed. "It implies that perhaps there have been no deaths at all."

Duke blinked because he hadn't thought of that.

"Perhaps we should check your burial place when the sun is up?" He suggested cautiously, unsure what beliefs these people might hold regarding the dead.

"I will send our wisemen to investigate, yes." Grandfather agreed. "What would you like to do this day?"

Duke thought about it, quickly discarding several obviously futile avenues of investigation.

"I need to learn more about your people. For instance, the metal jewelry I keep seeing; does everyone wear them? Where did they come from? Why don't _you_ have any metal ornaments?" He said at last, playing a hunch.

"I wear the charms my wife made me – they are all I desire." Grandfather answered, stroking the wooden tokens on his neck-piece tenderly. "The others – and I would say that is nearly everyone else in our village, save my wife – enjoy the metal pieces our blacksmith's son makes. They are aesthetically pleasing but I prefer wood and stone and shell to cold metal."

Duke's eyes narrowed in thought and his lips firmed as he nodded his head.

"I'd like to meet this jewelry maker." He decided.

Grandfather nodded once and turned the discussion to what they should make for their morning meal. Duke itched to get started but false dawn was barely noticeable outside and he knew it was too early yet to be interviewing suspects. He felt a pang of homesickness and missed Nathan, Dwight, and Audrey. They'd be in their element here and they knew more about interviewing folks and fixing troubles than he did – but he was sure they were well on their way to building happy lives in Haven now and looking forward to enjoying life without troubles so he pushed that feeling away. He had a new life now – although he was still a little baffled as to why he was _still_ helping people.

Grace had also gotten up, unable to sleep after her nightmare. She visited the trench by the wall that the women used as a toilet and then the spring where she had been told the women bathed and cleaned the residue of sweat off of her body. Once she had changed into fresh clothing she washed her nightgown and cloth garments from the day before and draped them over bushes in front of her tent to dry when the sun came up. Then she made her way to the cook tent where yawning women were just beginning to stoke fires and prepare cakes made of corn, mashed roots and berries for breakfast. Grace got herself a mug of tea and sat down to help with breakfast preparations, talking with the women as she did so.

It was enlightening. The women there claimed to be happy and generally seemed more sorrowful about the schism between the genders than angry but there seemed to be the same sort of malaise lingering around them that she had sensed while walking through the village. The women in the tent worked and chattered and planned their days but quietly and lethargically. Grace felt a frisson of alarm - this lassitude was more serious than it appeared. Her conviction wasn't quite a premonition but Grace suspected that it was underpinned by that particular skill.

"Tell me about the deaths that drove you here." Grace asked the women around her. "What, exactly, happened?"

A babble of voices rang out, each one with a slightly different story. Grace just listened intently – sorting out the various stories with the ease of long practice. The consensus, however, was that somehow being around men was resulting in the mysterious deaths of women.

"Excuse me…" A quiet voice at her shoulder drew her attention away from the women around her. She looked to see a young woman in her late teens or early twenties just behind her. "Grandmother is asking for you."

"Of course." Grace said instantly, rising to her feet. "Ladies, I thank you for my breakfast and your patience with my ignorant questions."

A chorus of approval followed her departure from the tent.

"You have made friends." Her guide told her with a small smile.

"I like meeting new people." Grace said modestly and honestly. "It is part of the reason I became an explorer."

"You are not just an explorer." She replied serenely. "You came to help us – I have confirmed this to Grandmother."

"You are able to sense the intentions of people?" Grace asked.

"Yes. It is not a comfortable ability but it is often useful."

"Did you meet the men who came to the village? The ones with tales of evil women?"

"There was only one man – he returned with a new face but the same black heart. Grandmother knows but she hasn't been able to get this knowledge to Grandfather."

"I can help with that." Grace admitted cautiously.

"Yes, I know." The girl smiled, an impish expression that lightened her previously solemn demeanor. "I told Grandmother that too."

"What is your name? I am called Grace."

"I am Corryn. Grandmother is my mother's mother. I inherited my ability to read people from my father."

"Does Grandmother have a special ability too?" Grace asked curiously.

"That is not for me to divulge. It is considered bad manners here to ask a person about their affliction."

"Oh, I am most sorry. It is not my intention to offend."

"I am not offended. I recognize your intent. But others might be offended, so I warn you."

"You are very kind." Grace smiled warmly before ducking into the communal tent where Grandmother held court.

There were a few women scattered around the tent. One had several young children, mostly girls, and was teaching them a counting game involving pebbles. Others were working on fabric or leather in the larger space. Three were sitting on the floor in front of Grandmother who was sitting on a leather and wood backless seat.

"Greetings, Grandmother." Grace said, bowing gracefully from the waist.

"Thank you for your prompt attendance on an old woman." Grandmother replied.

"Age is wisdom, Grandmother. Wisdom is entitled to respect and promptness." Grace's eyes twinkled as she replied with the correct formula and Grandmother's lips curved slightly in acknowledgment of the stuffy formality.

"Now, convention is satisfied. Be seated with me and tell me what wisdom you have gathered in the night."

Another leather and wood contraption was produced and Grace sat in it confidently, arranging her cloth skirts to drape around it.

"How freely do you wish me to speak in front of these others?" Grace asked directly. Frankly, she couldn't think of a roundabout way to discover how secret this meeting needed to be.

"These four women are part of our council. Shara represents the nursing mothers, Talith, the maidens, Darinis answers to our cultivators and Corryn, who brought you here, speaks for the wisewomen. Normally she would still be an apprentice but sickness took her mentor from us shortly before these trials began."

"Very well." Grace nodded to all four women as Grandmother introduced them. "Then I will begin by informing you that I can communicate with my partner, the man who came here with me. We can speak mind to mind without being next to each other."

The women look interested but not surprised.

"Last night he told me that the men believe that women are responsible for the deaths of several men – basically, the same thing you told me, Grandmother, only the men died and the women lived."

"Interesting." Grandmother's eyes narrowed in thought. "I wonder if my husband is already checking our honored resting place."

"Would you like me to check with my friend?" Grace asked.

"When we have finished our discussion." Grandmother answered calmly. "What else do we need to know?"

"Grandmother, I have helped many villages with special troubles. It is my mission in life and I have had a long, long life so far. This is one of those troubles."

"Our village is a haven for those with special troubles. Corryn already shared with me that your heart was to heal the damage done by those troubles. This trouble seems different, however."

"I believe it was recently created and set in motion." Grace explained. "And I fear that it might have been set in motion to draw me here for some reason but I don't know who or why."

Corryn gave her a sharp look but said nothing.

"It's pure speculation on my part," Grace went on after an uncomfortable moment of silence, "but I suspect that this is a dual trouble."

"Please explain."

"Someone has created mistrust for women in the men and someone has created memories of men and women dying that would harden the schism between the genders." Grace elaborated. "I don't believe both of these problems originate from the same person."

"You suspect that these are – complimentary – troubles?" Grandmother speculated. "Perhaps a man and a woman?"

"Almost certainly a man and a woman. My friend will be looking for the man but I must find the woman."

Grandmother looked at Corryn, who nodded once.

"Very well. You have my permission to wander where you will and speak with all. Do you desire a guide in this?"

"There is more, Grandmother." Grace cautioned. "There is also the problem of your people, male and female, growing lethargic and weak. I noticed the quiet in the village as the men brought me here; I noticed the women in the gathering tent moving slowly and speaking infrequently. This separation seems to be draining your people of their life essences."

Grandmother looked worried.

"Spirit woman's curse..." Corryn breathed in obvious dismay. Grace put an inquiring look on her face and waited, looking from Corryn to Grandmother and back again.

"Generations ago," Grandmother responded to the silent question, "a woman with hair of fire and eyes as blue as yours appeared to my many-times grandmother." Her voice took on the cadence of an experienced storyteller. "She told us of a troublemaker, a woman who looked much like she did, who would one day come to our home and warned us that on that day death would also come and take all who dwell here."

Grace felt a deep gratitude for Steve and Lisa's work in changing her skin tone and hair color. If she had come to this place with her normal looks... Then she cursed, realizing the trap she was now in. If someone were to undo Steve and Lisa's work...

Grace wrestled with opposing desires; honesty and concealment. Finally honesty won out since it was coupled with an unshakeable conviction that remaining concealed would backfire badly. It wasn't quite a precognition but it was close to one.

"Grandmother, my normal hair color is red." She admitted quietly, bringing gasps of consternation from the women around her. "But I swear to you that I intend no harm, only help. I am not responsible for the harm being done to your people. I will help you if you will let me."

She braced herself, prepared to teleport herself away from the village at the first sign of hostility.

"I know." Grandmother assured her, her assured response calming the other women. "Corryn told me when she first brought you to me who you were. You have been watched since walking through the gates. You have been true, except for your appearance, and that is a deception that harmed no one."

Grace breathed a silent sigh of relief.

"What else did this Spirit Woman say?" She asked, worried about the evidence that someone had been setting a trap for her centuries ago.

"None of our men know of this," Grandmother warned Grace. "My many-times grandmother warned us that they must not know. She was a seer, as I am. This is, indeed, the time of Spirit Woman's warning but _you_ are not the source of the danger facing us. Grandmother warned her daughter, who warned hers, and so on until my day came that the woman with flaming hair who traveled with the man who had walked through the gate to the Spirit World but returned for the love of his heart-siblings would be our only hope for salvation. Is your companion this man?"

"Yes." Grace whispered, awed by this prophecy. "I called him back from death myself."

"Ahhh," Grandmother smiled in satisfaction. "Then you are an answer to prayer, Heart Guardian. You will heal our people. You will reunite our village. And you grow in strength and understanding by doing so. Contact your man, Spirit Warrior, and warn him. You two must be reunited to withstand Spirit Woman, for she is the one behind our ills. But beware, you must not harm Spirit Woman - if you do your life will be destroyed."

Grace shivered, recognizing Grandmother's words as both prophecy and utter truth.

 _"Duke, are you free to talk?"_ She sent to him, trying to lock her unease down.

 _"Yes."_ He replied instantly. _"Are you okay?"_

 _"I - I've gotten some disturbing news."_ She admitted, trying and failing to keep her discomfort from resonating through the link between them.

 _"What is it?"_ Duke demanded, bristling with energy as he prepared to come to her defense. Grace smiled somewhat as his obvious concern soothed her fears.

 _"You first. What have you found?"_

Silent disapproval bombarded her before he relented unhappily.

 _"The blacksmith's son made the jewelry almost everyone is wearing."_ He told Grace. _"Are the women wearing copper ornaments too?"_

 _"Most of them."_

Grace said after a moment's review of the people she had seen. _"You think the jewelry is the source of the Trouble?"_

 _"I think it's entirely possible. Could you get the women to take theirs off?"_

 _"I think I can. I'll let you know."_

 _"Now it's your turn,"_ Duke insisted stubbornly. _"What have you found that upset you so much?"_

 _"This is a trap, Duke."_ Grace admitted reluctantly. _"This is a trap someone laid centuries ago."_

 _"For you alone or for both of us?"_

 _"I don't know."_

 _"I don't suppose you know who either, do you?"_ Duke responded in a thought that was more resignation than question.

 _"No."_

 _"Of course not. Tell me about the trap."_

 _"A red-headed, blue-eyed woman came to this place centuries ago and told the people that another red-headed, blue-eyed woman would be responsible for the deaths of all the people in the village."_

 _"Good thing you visited Steve, then."_

 _"Unless someone has a trouble that can undo Steve's work."_

Worry radiated from Duke at that thought.

 _"Grandmother knows. I told her. She warned me of the trap. You must warn Grandfather but privately."_

 _"I suppose it's useless to warn you to be careful."_

 _"I'm always as careful as I can be. I suppose it's useless to warn you_ _to be careful too."_ A reluctant smile curved her lips and Duke's curved similarly. They were stubborn in remarkably similar ways.

 _"I'll continue my investigation of the village. I believe Grandfather will provide my evening meal and a place to sleep again tonight and I will warn him then. Be as careful as you can."_

 _"You too, Duke. I have a bad feeling about this."_

Duke's response was a non-verbal "you think?" and then the connection between them closed. Grace focused on the people around her and shared what she had learned. Grandmother agreed to send word to all women to bring their jewelry to her for safekeeping and sent Grace and Corryn out to begin their own investigation.

"You like your man."

"He's a good man." Grace replied neutrally. "He has endured much but he still has the heart of a protector."

"Such men make the best protectors." Corryn agreed. "I look forward to meeting him soon."

"In the meantime, does our young blacksmith have a love interest in here?"

"Geolth?" Corryn's head tilted to one side as she considered. "Yes. He and Leris were close until shortly before this unfolded."

"Do you know what happened between them?"

"I do not. Perhaps we should ask her. She is undoubtedly working in the herb garden."

Corryn and Grace made their way through the orchards to some small garden plots on the far side of the encampment. Grace noticed a few groups with young children and a woman who was obviously teaching them about gardening. Older girls were also scattered around, some doing judicious harvesting others pruning or weeding or carrying water from the small central pond to various plots. Even the youngest children, however, seemed lethargic and pale. Grace frowned with worry - the malaise was growing stronger.

"Leris," Corryn said as they approached a solitary young woman working on a tiered herb garden, "this is our new guest, Grace. She would like to talk to you about Geolth."

The woman straightened up and gave the other two her full attention. Grace noticed that her face was wary and her lips were downturned in an expression of lingering sorrow.

"I don't know what happened." She said briefly, her voice low and husky. "We were happy, I know we were! Then that stranger came and Geolth grew angrier and angrier. He accused me of things – more with each passing day. Then he just cast me off. I still don't understand."

"And what happened after that, Leris?" Grace asked gently.

"I came here to the herb garden and watered it with my tears. Plants have always been my solace."

"Hmmm…" Grace considered her feelings for Duke and men in general. She had eaten two meals since arriving in this place. She wasn't sure if they'd been seasoned or not…

"Corryn, have I consumed any herbs that Leris might have watered with her tears?"

Corryn considered and then shook her head.

"We seldom season morning foods and last night was a very simple meal."

"Perhaps you should make sure Leris' herbs are not used for a while." Grace suggested. "It's possible her sorrow and confusion now infuse them."

Leris looked horrified and began rubbing dirt off of her hands. Grace captured her hands and caught Leris' eye.

"It's not your fault, my dear." Grace said, her voice rich with compassion. "Troubles are not something a person chooses. And if this is you it merely strengthens feelings already present. It did not create the anger between your people."

On the other side of the fence Duke was facing off against a very angry young man.

"I don't care what Grandfather wants! I don't have to talk to you."

"Geolth," Duke said in his most reasonable voice – which still revealed his growing impatience, "you must understand that this situation can't continue. Your village will die if the men and women continue to avoid each other."

"Maybe we should! Then the afflictions will end."

"I doubt that. The afflictions have been created intentionally and if your village dies out that creator will undoubtedly begin again."

"Who? Who would do such a thing?" Geolth's anger faltered as the magnitude of Duke's words hit him.

"I don't know. My people were troubled – afflicted – by a woman who was full of anger and pain. She thought her actions would heal her hurt."

"Is she the one who has done this to us?"

"I don't think so. As far as I know she only visited our people – and she is now dead. But that brings us no closer to solving this trouble. Please talk to me about what happened between you and Leris."

Geolth sighed and his shoulders slumped in defeat.

"She is everything to me." He confessed. "Even now I think of her smile, her soft brown eyes, and my heart melts. But she was – is – false."

"And you learned of this – how?" Duke asked shrewdly.

"The stranger told me. Of course I didn't believe him but then I saw her with my own eyes. Even then I couldn't believe it but…"

"Who did she betray you with?"

"My friend Fernult, and Asi and Talth." Geolth's mouth twisted down, his eyes hardening.

"Did you talk to them about this?"

"Of course not!" Geolth was shocked. "Bad enough that they would betray me with…"

"Come with me – we need to get to the bottom of this." Duke ordered briskly. His assumption that Geolth would comply influenced the prickly young man and Geolth put down the tools he'd been using and followed Duke.

"Is Fernult on guard duty again?" Duke asked Geolth.

"Yes, it is his week."

"Good, let's talk to him first."

Geolth muttered unhappily but went along with Duke anyway. The discussion went as Duke suspected it would. Fernult had no clue what Geolth was talking about.

"Brother, I would never betray you so – and Leris loves you. She would never…" He protested after Duke asked him about what Geolth had claimed.

"I saw you both!" Geolth countered bitterly.

"When? Where?" Fernult was honestly baffled, Duke could tell.

"You were behind the meeting house the night of Breyan's manhood ceremony."

"Geolth, I was with Breyan that night. I was his guide." Fernult pointed out gently. "Breyan can confirm that I never left his sight."

"But…!"

"You have been deliberately deceived, Geolth." Duke said, his tone kind but firm.

"How can I remember seeing…?"

"It could be a trouble someone has used on you, or it could be something else." Duke explained. "But the important thing is that you realize that Leris never did what you remember."

Geolth suddenly fell to his knees, clutching his head. Blood began to trickle from his nose and he groaned.

 _"Grace!"_ Duke shouted mentally, dropping to his knees in front of Geolth and grabbing the man's shoulders. _"Help me. Something is wrong with him."_

 _"Show me."_ Grace responded instantly. In the garden Corryn and Leris led her to a convenient stump and tugged her to sit on it.

 _"How?"_

 _"I am going to move through your mind to touch his."_ Grace explained. _"Watch. This is something you can do without me once you have practiced."_

"Hang on, Geolth, my friend's going to help you." Duke muttered as the man thrashed slightly against Duke's grip. His blood splashed onto Duke and vanished into his skin and Duke's eyes glowed silver. The enhanced strength helped him to control the convulsing young man, however.

Grace used Duke's connection with Geolth to enter the younger man's mind and once in his mind she began repairing what appeared to Duke to be a series of mental scars.

 _"This was cruelly done."_ Grace thought, half to herself. _"And I think the damage is deliberate. Geolth was supposed to die rather than realize that his grievance with Leris has been contrived. I think I can undo the damage, though."_

Duke watched with fascination as she soothed and smoothed the pathways in Geolth's brain. Just as she worked her way to what Duke perceived as a dark knot in the neural matter Duke was forcefully pulled away from Geolth. Grace remained in Geolth's mind, working and oblivious to Duke's mental departure.

"Remove your hands from him, heathen!"

The man threatening Duke was a stranger to Duke but Fernult, struggling in the grip of two other newcomers knew them.

"Stop, Parleth! He is helping Geolth!" Fernult protested, still fighting to get free of the other two.

"No, he is controlled by the evil one who brought him here." Parleth's eyes were bloodshot and spittle flew from his mouth as he snarled his reply. "We must destroy him and then the evil ones!"

Geolth convulsed again and a drop of his blood hit Duke on the cheek. The blood vanished and a small grin crossed Duke's face as his eyes turned black this time. He surged to his feet, throwing Parleth several feet away and advanced on the two holding Fernult. They released Fernult and prudently backed away but Duke kept advancing, his fist clenching and unclenching.

"Duke!" Geolth called from behind him. "Don't. She's says to stand down!"

Duke turned to face Geolth who was wiping at his face as he climbed shakily to his feet. Duke's nostrils flared and menace radiated from him.

"She says she needs your help to return to her mind, Duke." Geolth went on, bravely standing his ground in the face of Duke's obvious danger. "You were her link."

Duke took a step, still clearly out of control.

"She says to remember Haven! Nobody controls you!"

This halted Duke and his head bowed, fists clenched and knuckles white as he took deep breaths to bring himself under control again. When he looked up again his eyes were their normal brown.

"Thank you." He told the other man grudgingly.

 _"Grace?"_ He reached out mentally. She surged into his mind – relief, compassion, and pride coming through to him wordlessly – and then she was gone, back into her own mind again.

Around him men were shaking their heads as if awakening from a bad dream.

"What have I done?" One of the new men asked plaintively.

"It wasn't your fault." Duke said to them. "You were hit by a trouble. It'll be okay now."

"We must go to Grandfather!" Another man said urgently.

In the compound Grace was explaining to Leris what had happened to Geolth. As she spoke tears of relief flowed from Leris and the women in the garden also began shaking their heads as those tears splashed onto the plants she'd been working on and some supernatural law of contagion caused the pain her herbs had infected her neighbors with to fade and vanish. The women headed towards the gathering tent, joining others as every body in the Garden gathered in the large meeting tent to receive guidance from Grandmother.

As the women were caught up by Grace and the men were brought up to speed by Duke a solitary figure left the village and moved swiftly through the surrounding forest to the thinnie that had given Grace and Duke entrance to this world. As the men and women of the village reunited and an impromptu celebration started the shadowy figure returned to Sanctuary unnoticed by any.

"So," Duke approached Grace, a mug of hot herbal tea in his hand because alcohol had not yet made its way to these people, although there was some fine cannabis in the pipe being passed from man to man, "is this a successful mission?"

"Fairly successful." Grace allowed with a wry smile. "Of course we don't know who meddled and they are surely long gone by now."

"Of course." Duke agreed gravely. Grace's smile grew slightly.

"And these people now need to be placed on our roster for follow up. They're obviously targets of a Troublemaker."

"Obviously."

Grace resisted the urge to smack Duke – an urge he was clearly aware of since his eyes were twinkling at her even as he kept his face utterly serious. Then the smile slid from her face as she remembered the other events of this mission.

"Yeah, that dream – the magnolia." She wasn't surprised that Duke followed her thoughts so easily.

"It was just a dream." She told him, wishing she believed her own words.

"You don't really believe that." Duke pointed out. "You're frightened."

"Yeah." She admitted, realizing that she and Duke were too psychically connected for her to lie to him. "I thought he died centuries ago but…"

"Who is "he"?" Duke asked her directly.

"My Troublemaker – my Croatoan. There was never a body but I shouldn't have been able to free myself if he still lived, so we all assumed he died in the Void after he fled the attack that freed me from him. But that magnolia was really there and he's the only one who knew what that flower used to mean to me."

"So we assume he lives – what does that mean?"

"It means I might be a danger to everyone."

"No." Duke was firm. "I broke free of Croatoan and he wasn't dead. If your Troublemaker is alive then you broke free of him when he wasn't dead either. So clearly you can fight his power."

"What's he been doing all this time?" Grace whispered fearfully. "What has he become?"

"Stop it, Grace." Duke said decisively. "If you work yourself up you're just playing into his hands. Don't do his work for him."

Grace shook herself slightly and summoned a smile for Duke.

"Great advice. Which one of us is the mentor again?"

"I think we're partners now. Do I get a badge?" Grace laughed and finally shook off the rest of the fear that was plaguing her.

"So, what's next?" Duke asked her as they looked out over the celebrating folks.

"We have to return to Sanctuary and make a full report. Probably I'm going to have to be evaluated this time." Grace told Duke. "And while that's going on we should set you up with your own place – unless you've decided being a Cleaner isn't for you?"

The smile on Duke's lips was bittersweet as he watched Leris and Geolth embrace to the cheers of their neighbors.

"No." He told Grace, tearing his gaze away from the happy couple. "You were right – this is what I need to do right now."

"I'm glad. Sanctuary needs you. These people need you."

"And you?"

"I couldn't have solved this without you, Duke. I'm going to suggest that Sanctuary consider making us partners. We've never had Cleaning teams and now I wonder why."

"Maybe you've never had Cleaners who meshed as well?"

"Maybe."

Epilogue

In the Armory Vince watched Audrey mope around with a frown of worry – one that was shared by Croatoan. There had been a marked change in Croatoan since he volunteered to power the Armory. Vince suspected that powering the Armory in some way relieved a psychic pressure from all the aether Croatoan had absorbed over the centuries, calming the man, but he didn't know for sure. Not even the data Byron Howard had left him provided much data about how aether interacted with the living.

"She can't go on like this." Croatoan murmured unhappily to Vincent.

"I know." Vince agreed. "But she misses them."

"Does she have to stay here? Now that the Armory is running surely it doesn't need a catalyst anymore."

Vincent rummaged around in his database and a slow smile started.

"You are correct. Audrey can leave any time now." He told Croatoan. "I'll suggest it – but returning to Haven won't bring Duke back. That's a lot of her grief too."

Croatoan frowned. He was too proud to admit that his mistakes had hurt Audrey so much but he felt guilty and it showed. Wisely, Vince kept that observation to himself.


	3. Chapter 3

Season Six: Episode Three

Testing, Testing: One…

 **(Next week will be late or missing altogether. The writing staff will be trapped in the wilderness where there is no electronic communication – at least not unless the writing staff hikes to the top of a mountain which the writing staff is not going to do, especially since I haven't got a laptop that would allow me to post anything anyway. lol Also, the writing staff is struggling with pacing and ideas so if anyone would like to help the writing staff and make suggestions or be available to bounce ideas off of, please feel free to message me.)**

 _ **(And, yes, I stuck "Thanks For The Memories" in this episode. It was already written and perfect for where I'm going with this so, sorry for plagiarizing off of myself but…)**_

 _Duke was bored. He and Grace had spent the past week in Sanctuary while she caught up on paperwork – he shuddered at the thought of filling out paperwork just so he could help Troubled people – and while he was poked and prodded and had his "gifts" examined and measured. Not only was he bored, he was irritable since using those abilities generally required him to be unhappy for one reason or another. And that shrink was waiting to see him! A good game of poker could have helped. Putting one over on the local constabulary would have helped. Hell, just knocking back some tax-free exotic liquor would have helped his mood but as far as he could tell this place didn't have a criminal element at all. It was, in a word, boring…_

"So, you had a very vivid dream about your Troublemaker being alive?"

Grace hesitated before answering Cenna. It had seemed so real at the time but now she was finding it hard to believe that it could possibly be true. After all these centuries, why would her Troublemaker show up now?

"I guess so." She finally managed. "It seemed – _felt_ – so incredibly real at the moment. I can still smell the flower…"

She looked up at Cenna who may have been the palest person Grace had ever seen. Milky white skin, icy blue eyes and hair a blond so pale it was practically silver. She was also tall and slender and could have starred as an elf in a Lord of the Rings movie with practically no makeup at all. Cenna smiled encouragingly.

"Sometimes our dreams can be very real to us. Do you think this might have been triggered by…?" Cenna's voice trailed off, sympathy and concern showing in her expression. Grace frowned in thought.

"I don't see how or why Harmony's loss would have triggered _that_ dream. Harmony was long after I broke free."

"How are you handling the anniversary?" Cenna asked gently.

"I haven't thought about it." Grace answered, sorrow shading her voice. "I've been so busy…"

"So think about it. How are you feeling?"

"Still sad – still missing her." Grace's reply was fast. She hadn't needed to consider it at all. "I'll always miss her, I know. But it doesn't hurt as much. Maybe because I have something else to do this time?"

"Avoiding pain through work isn't healthy." Cenna warned her. "Pain delayed generally just gets stronger."

"I don't know, Cenna." Grace sighed. "I don't want to stick around Sanctuary and wallow this year. I feel better working."

"Okay, then tell me about your new partner." Cenna was too experienced to press matters. She'd planted a seed and was perfectly happy to let it mature on its own.

"Saving him is one of the most positive things I've ever done in a long time." Grace replied without hesitation. "He's the kind of person I became a Cleaner to help – he cares."

Grace smiled as she remembered seeing him with a group of young men on P357, showing them how to tie flies for fishing. They'd hung on his every word like he was a hero and he had indulged them without once revealing his amusement at their reaction. They had spent a week on P357, cementing the healing between the genders, smoothing the way for other Cleaners to visit the place in the future, educating Grandmother, Grandfather and their apprentices about the Troubles and how they could be dealt with and removing troubles from people who knew their families carried lethal troubles and feared their reappearance. Duke had made a start at healing the damage Haven had done to him, Grace thought, although she knew that sort of pain would take much longer to heal than one positive interlude.

"What's your opinion of his mental state? Tehani says he's stable but it's a fragile stability." Cenna asked, honing in on Grace's thoughts in a way that frequently made Grace uneasy even though she had no indication that Cenna was actually Skilled.

"She's a better judge of that than I am." Grace admitted, hiding her unease. "He hasn't seemed unstable to me. A little off kilter from the huge change in his life maybe but..." Grace paused, reevaluating the past mission, looking for any sign of danger. The Powers knew that she'd missed the warning signs before…

"How do you think he'd react to a bad mission? Maybe one like P178?" Cenna pressed.

Grace sighed, unsure how to answer that.

"I don't know. I agree with Tehani, that Croatoan fellow did a number on him and his daughter Mara was even worse. Yes, he still thinks of himself as cursed, although this recent positive mission has helped considerably with that."

"So if it were a bad mission do you think he'd become a danger?"

"Cenna every one of us Cleaners could become a danger under the right circumstances. Not one of us is without deep emotional scars. So yes, he could become a danger – _but_ I don't see him easily turning back into what Croatoan made of him. He's not violent at heart, although he'll indulge in violence if it's necessary."

"Very well." Cenna leaned back and gave Grace an encouraging smile. "I'm clearing you for duty but I expect to see him myself before clearing you both go back out in the field."

"He's not going to like that." Grace noted mildly. "I don't think he trusts mind healers and he has a deep distrust of women in general, although he masks it fairly well."

"Yes, Tehani warned me. Still, the Council needs him assessed and you know it would be protocol regardless of his past."

"Yeah, I know. Good luck with him."

Cenna smiled slightly, acknowledging the challenge ahead of her and Grace made good her escape. She sympathized with Duke's unwillingness to be "shrunk" as he put it because she hated these sessions herself, although with practice she'd learned to hide it a bit better than Duke.

She and Duke crossed paths as she exited the building and he entered.

"You're running late." She noted needlessly. Duke scowled.

"I didn't sign up for this." He practically snarled. Grace put a sympathetic hand on his arm, radiating compassion and calm for all she was worth. She didn't want Duke to get pulled from Cleaning duty for an in-depth mind-healing.

"We all go through this, Duke. I was just up there with her. I don't like it either but it _is_ necessary. Cleaners can do so much damage if we get unbalanced."

All hint of amusement was gone as she shared that. She remembered a Cleaner who went bad and how devastating it had been for everyone involved. Duke noted her sincerity and the grimness that it was founded on but refused to be soothed. This just hit a little too close to his insecurities about being distrusted and it reminded him how sensible those insecurities really were.

"Look, no one can make you say anything." Grace volunteered. "But we aren't going to go back out until Cenna clears you for duty. I promise you, Cenna is discrete, trustworthy, and very good at her job. She doesn't want to do anything except make sure you are well equipped to deal with the things we deal with out there on the other worlds."

Duke nodded his acknowledgement of her words but his expression remained closed and suspicious.

"Still on for lunch?" Grace asked, opening the door to leave.

"Yeah." Duke said, his expression lightening a fraction.

"Good. I'll meet you here."

She left the building and Duke continued on. In her office Cenna pushed a button on her keyboard and the image of Duke scowling on her monitor as he strode through the building winked out to be replaced by a background of a green waterfall surrounded by lush vegetation.

She looked up when he sauntered through her door with a studiously neutral expression.

"Hello, Duke." She greeted him, meeting neutrality with neutrality. "Please, have a seat."

"No thanks." He closed the door and then leaned against it with a mixture of defiance and suspicion on his face, arms folded defensively against his chest.

"Very well." Cenna inclined her head calmly, allowing him to set his boundaries. "Please tell me your impressions of your first mission."

Duke's eyebrow rose skeptically.

"We helped those folks. It's better there now." He shrugged dismissively.

"Anything else?"

"Like what?"

Cenna kept her calm demeanor but it was a struggle.

"Like, how do you feel about working with Grace? Do you want to continue under her mentorship?"

"I haven't met any of these other Cleaners but she seems fine. We wouldn't have helped those people without her."

"What can you tell me about her nightmare?"

"What? With the flower?" Duke looked puzzled. "She was really scared. I could feel it – in my head." He pointed to his head in illustration.

"Do you think it was a nightmare?"

"I honestly don't know." Duke finally took a seat, relaxing somewhat since the conversation wasn't revolving around him. Cenna tightened her mental shields so he would have no clue how much that small sign of relaxation pleased her. "She didn't think it was a dream at the time, though."

"Has she shared her story with you at all?"

"Bare bones. I know she kind of went bad – the same way I did."

"Yes, there are large similarities between the two of you." Cenna waited.

"So, is that it?" Duke asked pushing himself up to his feet in preparation for leaving as his unease grew.

"Hardly." Cenna's lips twitched in spite of herself. "Duke, you know why you have to talk to me, right?"

"Because people are nosey and can't mind their own business?"

"Because you are powerful."

Duke looked uncomfortable with that observation. He'd been trying to avoid thinking of the damage he had done in Haven. He knew she was right but he wasn't sure he was ready to face the harm he'd caused by admitting that out loud.

"You don't want your power to be misused." Cenna stated firmly.

"It already has." He admitted bleakly. " _I_ have misused it."

"Grace said it was Croatoan who misused _you_." Cenna countered, inwardly rejoicing because Duke's admission was more than she'd hoped for. It was a sign that Grace's instincts were correct and that Duke was an asset in the making, not a liability waiting to explode.

"I let him." Duke confessed, his face covered in self-loathing. "I deserved to die. She shouldn't have brought me back."

Cenna studied him carefully, weighing responses.

"Do you want to die?" She asked him after a brief pause. He smiled wryly.

"Not anymore." He admitted.

"Do you want to make amends?"

Doubt that he could ever make up for the harm he'd already done warred with the guardian, the protector, the defender that made up so much of his personality.

"Yes." He confessed – his voice husky with emotions he tried (unsuccessfully) to suppress. "But I don't think that's possible."

"You have many years ahead of you to try and make amends, Duke." Cenna pointed out, offering hope but not promises.

"Or I could go bad again and hurt more people."

There. He'd said it. His darkest fear out in the open.

"You will undoubtedly hurt people." Cenna pointed out. "You are embarking on a path that involves confrontation and conflict. My job is to ensure that you have the tools to know when it is acceptable to use your powers and when it might be dangerous to you and those around you."

"And that requires, what, from me?" He asked suspiciously.

"It requires sacrifice from you, Duke. You will have to be honest with me and especially with yourself. You will have to face yourself and your actions without flinching. You will have to learn to forgive those who used you – who hurt you. Most of all, you will have to learn to forgive yourself."

Now Duke looked daunted. He was an intelligent man and he could see exactly the point Cenna was making. Clearly he also realized the emotional price to the course Cenna had just outlined.

"Did not your Buddha say: " _It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell."_ _?"_

 _Duke grimaced, unsurprised that she knew about his affiliation with Buddhism. She was right, however, and he bowed to reason and necessity._

"Fine – what do you want to know?"

"Right now, I want to know your feelings about your first mission, working with Grace, and your current situation. Eventually we need to look at the path that led to what you became in Haven." Cenna said steadily, firmly suppressing her concern at pressing him so hard. He'd made more progress than she had hoped he would for a first visit but if he and Grace were to go back out into the field then she needed to push him as far as she could while she was making progress. How he responded right now was critical.

Duke shot her a deeply unhappy look but firmed his lips, squared his shoulders and gave a brief nod of his head.

"I can see that." He admitted, much to her relief. "So, the mission…"

In Sanctuary Grace was walking through the small cemetery just outside of town. Some people found it odd but Grace loved the sense of history in cemeteries – and the peace. She hadn't planned on it but she wasn't surprised to find herself in a quiet corner of the cemetery with a simple stone marker that said "Harmony, beloved daughter, gone too soon". She plucked a rose from the bush growing a few feet away, sucking at the blood one of the thorns drew from her thumb, and laid it at the base of the marker.

"I still miss you, darling." She whispered, sorrow lining her face. "I miss you every day."

She didn't see the shadowy figure on the other side of the rose bush, watching her grieve. She didn't see the figure stride off either. After half an hour of quiet reflection Grace stood and headed back to the Medical Center. Her face was more peaceful than it had been but the lingering sorrow was visible to anyone who knew what to look for. Not as strong, but there.

Duke met her in front of the Center and willingly followed Grace when she said she wanted to introduce him to her favorite eating place. A very short while later they were seated at a round table with a fire in the center. Meat and vegetables, marinated with the seasoning of the client's choice, sizzled and popped as the chef, a tiny man with features that would have been considered Asian in Haven, bustled around the circle, turning the skewers and handing the ones he deemed sufficiently cooked to the person waiting for them. There were other tables in the place, all circular surrounding a fire and with their own cooks. As small as Sanctuary seemed to be this place was clearly popular because all three of the round tables were full of diners either eating or waiting for their meals.

"Well?" Grace asked as she and Duke accepted their skewers and left the establishment. Both of them were raw after their meetings with Cenna and neither wanted to be around too many people at the moment. Duke followed Cenna's lead as she headed towards a nearby park that was constructed around walking trails that revealed the natural beauty of the area.

"This is delicious." Duke assured her, his shoulders finally starting to relax from the tension of his meeting with Cenna. She had been completely professional, which helped, but he hated exposing his feelings to anyone – even more now than he had before Mara and Croatoan had worked him over. The greenery shading the paths they walked and the occasional waterfall, pool, or tiny meadow filled with wildflowers soothed both of them, as Grace had known it would. This was a regular routine for her after a visit with Cenna.

"What kind of living space do you want, Duke?" Grace suspected that having a space of his own was going to be crucial to his peace of mind soon.

"I haven't really thought about it." He realized. "I'm going to miss the Rouge, though."

"There are cottages closer to the sea – one might be open." Grace noted. "I know there are a few open apartments in my building too."

"How would that work? I don't have any money here."

"We use a credit system, Duke, and you have credit for successful missions in both Haven and P357. You can afford your own place – although you are welcome to use my spare room as long as you'd like. I'm not trying to get rid of you." Grace smiled slightly at the last.

"What do people do for fun here, anyway?" Duke asked, thinking that if he didn't find a poker game soon he might just die of boredom.

"Well, we have plays and public houses. People visit each other. There is music…" Grace's voice trailed off as she realized she really didn't do anything at all for fun. It had been ages since she had done more than return to Sanctuary, catch up on paperwork for a day, catch up with her very few friends the next day and then head out for another mission.

"You need to get out more." Duke told her with mock gravity. "That degree of boring can be lethal."

Grace swatted him on the arm, recognizing the teasing for what it was.

"I work." She explained with exaggerated exasperation.

"That's even worse. It's a good thing I came along – you're in desperate need of a good time." Duke assured her blandly.

"I'm sure you will track down the fringe elements of Sanctuary in record time." Grace noted dryly.

"If there are any." Duke groused, "In the meantime I'll take you up on that offer of a room. No need for me to rush into my own place. It's not like I have private business transactions to conduct."

"Yet." Grace amended for him with a twitch of her lips. Duke smiled but made no other response. Part of him missed being a pirate but part of him was starting to enjoy being looked at with hope and respect rather than suspicion.

"How long before we go out again, do you think?" He asked her when the silence had stretched between them just long enough to start feeling uncomfortable.

"I have no doubt it will be as soon as Therman can get approval from Cenna." Grace assured him. "There are always Troubles to deal with. Worse, it seems like we clean up a world only to have two more show up with Troubles."

"Maybe we should be trying to deal with the source?"

"There's more than one source, though." Longstanding frustration shaded Grace's voice. "And we don't really know who they are or where they are. We've been reacting for centuries."

"I was talking about the Void and aether." Duke explained. "If we cut off the supply…"

"We have no clue how that could be accomplished." Grace admitted sadly.

"I was afraid of that. But what about Mara's world? Maybe they know something. They seem to have been pretty technologically advanced."

"We don't trust them." Grace explained. "They are powerful and arrogant and terrified of aether. We fear what they might do if they were aware of how great the problem is – or become aware of Sanctuary and it's concentration of folks with Skills."

"It seems to me that Sanctuary is losing this battle against aether and the Troubles." Duke reasoned cautiously. "I sense your fear, Grace, when you talk about aether reaching a tipping point and destroying everything we know. You can't continue to just react to those who abuse aether and you can't ignore any resource that could help deal with the problem."

"I know." She said simply. "But I can't act alone and so far I've been unable to convince the Council that the risk of the Void outweighs our fears of P500 – Mara's homeworld."

"Grace," Duke paused and took her hands as she paused and faced him. "You aren't alone anymore and we might have to act for the good of all."

"Not yet." She cautioned him. "Not until we both understand more."

"No, not yet." He agreed. 

In Haven Nathan was encouraging the FEMA officials to pack up and head home. Fortunately for Haven, Vince and Dave had positioned guard members in several government agencies and they managed to convince their fellow public servants that yes, a freak nor'easter _could_ cause the damage and loss of life that Haven had experienced.

The loss of contact with the outside world? Why lines of communication were cut by the storm and Haven _is_ just a small, out-of-the way place that no one ever really thinks about. But Havenites are tough and they'd rebuild. Thanks for the hand up – we're fine now…

And it was working. Another bullet dodged – the last bullet now that Croatoan, the Armory and Mara were gone, and Haven would be the peaceful, happy, little hamlet they'd always thought they wanted to be. In one way the need to protect Haven had benefitted all the survivors. It gave everyone a common goal and purpose while they tried to process the overwhelming bizarreness of the past twelve months – the past two months being the worst, of course. The people of Haven were closer than they'd ever been and the division between Troubled and unTroubled had been erased by the outpouring of Troubles at the last. No family had escaped unscathed and the shared pain brought most of the population of Haven together.

Nathan was grateful for the problems of reintegrating with the outside world. He was still trying to cope with the loss of the two people he loved best in the world and his failure to do so was masked by the needs of the moment. He wanted to keep his word to Audrey but he just didn't know how to go on without either her or Duke. Work was his only salvation. Dwight and Gloria didn't miss his struggle, however and on the day the last of the FEMA personnel left they took action.

Vickie was left with Lizzie and Aaron as Dwight and Gloria kidnapped Nathan before he could enter the police station.

"Stan's got things covered." Dwight declared, overriding Nathan's protests.

"Listen to Dwight or I'll sedate you and you'll come along with us anyway." Gloria added sternly. "You're getting an intervention whether you want one or not."

Nathan emphatically did not, but he'd learned when he was overmatched and this was one of those times. He soon regretted his compliance when Gloria and Dwight drove him to the harbor.

"No." He balked as they headed for the Rouge. "Not here."

"Yes." Dwight insisted, using his superior bulk to propel Nathan forward. "We don't have time for a drawn out process."

"What he means, boy, is that you're going to say good bye to them and this is the best place we can think of." Gloria offered. "Your pain is chewing you up and Haven needs you strong."

"Don't." Nathan was embarrassed to hear the pleading in his voice. "Just let me get back to work."

"Work isn't going to help you, Nathan." Gloria declared with a mixture of determination and sympathy. "You can't do your job if you collapse and you're walking the edge right now."

She opened the door to Duke's stateroom as she spoke. Dwight had maneuvered him down the dock while Gloria was speaking and Nathan was in the main living quarters of the Rouge while he was still trying to marshal an argument to sway his two tormentors. He froze as the sight of all of Duke's remaining possessions, the smell of Duke's aftershave and leather and furniture polish that all said "this is my friend" assaulted him.

"You're having nightmares, aren't you?" Gloria continued as Dwight deposited him on the leather covered couch easily now that he'd stopped fighting them.

"Some." Nathan admitted, rubbing his haggard face with one hand.

"I wouldn't have believed you if you'd said otherwise." Gloria opened a bottle of amber liquid and poured a tumbler full for Nathan.

"I can't drink this." Nathan protested. "I'm on duty."

"Nope." Dwight contradicted him. "Stan's covering the station and there are no fires that need putting out today. FEMA's gone and McHugh has the Guard organized as far as rebuilding goes."

"Drink, boy." Gloria ordered him gruffly, but the kindness in her voice brought the tears he'd been suppressing to his eyes.

"I –"

"Drink." Dwight seconded Gloria's order as Gloria poured tumblers for him and for herself. Dwight wasn't a fan of scotch but Nathan needed to grieve and to do that it appeared he needed to get drunk. Dwight was willing to drink along if that's what it took.

"To absent friends." Dwight toasted, getting the party started. Nathan raised his glass and tears spilled over as he swallowed Duke's liquor around the lump in his throat. Why the Rouge still had alcohol after everything Haven had been through was a bit of a mystery.

"I miss him too, Nathan." Gloria told him, tears welling in her eyes. "That boy was like a son to me. You did what he wanted, though. I know it hurts but…"

Nathan drained his tumbler and held it out to Dwight for a refill.

"I should have found another way." He said hoarsely.

"I've been trying to think of another way since that day and I haven't come up with a one, Nathan." Gloria told him acerbically. "If you've figured something out I'd sure like to know."

"No." Nathan admitted brokenly. "Still haven't thought of a damn thing. I hoped, when Dwight said he'd seen him, that he wasn't really dead – or someone resurrected him – or…"

"But he's really gone, boy, and so is she." Gloria said with the odd mixture of dogged determination and understanding compassion that she had mastered so well.

Nathan drained his tumbler again and then set it down carefully on the table and covered his face with both hands. His shoulders shook with sobs that he, even now, was trying to subdue.

"Getting drunk won't bring them back." He finally gasped out between sobs.

"I know, kid." Gloria admitted sadly. "But it will help you to let yourself feel. You've been bottling your emotions for so long…"

Dwight sipped at his drink, uncomfortable with no defined role but not willing to leave and possibly break the progress being made so far. Gloria sat next to Nathan and gathered him to her, holding him and patting his back as he finally gave in to his grief.

"I promised Audrey…" Nathan mumbled vaguely as his tears finally slowed.

"This is how you keep that promise, Nathan." Gloria assured him, releasing him as soon as he spoke. Silently, Dwight handed Nathan a folded blue handkerchief to wipe his face with. The flow of tears increased again as the scent of his friend emanated from the cloth – obviously it had been Duke's.

"Okay." Nathan took a deep breath and held it, willing the waterworks to end. "I'll be okay, really."

"Nathan, you need someone to talk to. You can't bottle it up anymore." Gloria scolded him gently.

"I know." He admitted reluctantly. "There's just been no time."

"I've got time." Dwight offered bluntly. "Anytime, just call or come over."

"I don't want to intrude on you and Lizzie. And she doesn't need to…"

"Nathan, she's a smart kid. She knows about Haven. She'll understand."

"Okay, Dwight." Nathan actually managed a smile that didn't feel like a Halloween mask. "You and Gloria win. No more suffering in silence."

"Or alone, man." Dwight insisted, clapping his hand on Nathan's shoulder and squeezing gently. "Maybe most of the town doesn't understand what you sacrificed for us all but I do."

"Just trying to rectify my mistake in the first place." He confessed.

"Was it a mistake?" Dwight asked. "The Troubles are finally gone. That wouldn't have happened if you never shot Howard and destroyed the Barn."

Nathan blinked, stunned. He'd been so busy beating himself up for the rain of death and destruction his refusal to let Audrey go had caused that it had never occurred to him that he'd broken the cycle – allowing the problem to finally be dealt with completely.

"Those of us who survived can live our lives now." Gloria offered. "Because of you and Audrey and Duke. But you're the only one left who can still enjoy the peace you bought – so quit being Mr. Stoic so you can start enjoying something."

Nathan poured his tumbler full again and held it high.

"To Duke and Audrey, the best Haven ever had."

"And Nathan." Dwight added somberly. "Because they were the best because of you, Nathan, never doubt it."

The clicked their glasses together and sipped.

"Did I ever tell you how Duke and I met?" Gloria offered with a smile. "He was just a boy – his father was actually on my autopsy table. They'd already put him in a foster home and not one idiot had offered to let the boy say goodbye to his dad."

"Did he even want to?" Nathan asked curiously. He knew better than most the complicated relationship between sons and their fathers.

"Yeah. In spite of everything Duke loved his dad. So he ran away from the home, made his way to the hospital somehow, pried open one of the windows – that was before we put bars on them…"

"That was _why_ you put bars on them, I think." Nathan offered, his voice just slightly slurred and the lines of pain on his face and the tension in his lean frame starting to relax. "I remember my dad saying something about it. He was impressed by Duke's tenacity."

And so it went. The three of them shared stories of Duke and Audrey and topped off Nathan's tumbler until he passed out on the sofa. Then Dwight called McHugh and the two of them got Nathan back to his own place where Gloria set up the coffee maker and left a glass of water and open bottle of Tylenol on the nightstand for Nathan to see when he first woke up. 

Meanwhile, in the Armory resting somewhere in the Void…

"I'm worried about her."

A tall man, with head full of salt and pepper, curly hair turned away from a viewscreen that showed a blond woman curled up in an easy chair, watching a viewscreen of her own that showed Haven in the midst of rebuilding. The sorrow that cloaked her was palpable.

"She needs something to do." The other man reasoned. He was shorter than the first man, with sandy blond hair liberally sprinkled with gray and a genial face that didn't match his hard blue eyes. But when he looked at the woman there was genuine tenderness.

"Something to take her mind off of her losses?" The first man speculated. "I agree, and I think I have just the thing."

He walked off, appearing in the woman's room a very short while later.

"Audrey, it occurs to me that we can remedy a situation now."

The woman looked up and smiled at the man. It tried for welcome but pain leaked from her like water from a colander.

"What's that, Vince?" She asked him, humoring him.

"Your original, Audrey – we can return her memories. I can do that but I think we'll need you to convince her to reenter this place."

Audrey blinked and her smile grew just a shade more genuine.

"I've never felt right about being the cause of her amnesia. It was a terrible thing Howard did to her. She wasn't going to tell anyone, except maybe her Brad, if she's still with him."

"Shall we correct this injustice, my dear?" Vince asked her gently.

"Yes. Especially now that I'm gone from Haven. Audrey has a right to her life." Audrey responded with more of her original energy.

"Wonderful. Here's a map to her place." Vince held his hand out, a piece of paper in it that hadn't existed a moment before.

"Right now?" Audrey was a little shocked.

"Why not? Did you have other plans?" Vince's eyes twinkled and she found an unfamiliar, answering smile on her lips.

"You're a good friend, Vince." She told him, rising onto her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek. The other man watched; jealousy and a hint of regret crossing his face. He wanted that relationship with her but she regarded him with pain and distrust that would probably never fade and when he was honest with himself he admitted that he deserved it.

He remained in place and just observed as Audrey straightened her hair and then left the place, appearing to exit from a small café in a large city. Vince rejoined him and they followed her on the viewscreen as she navigated her way to the apartment where a slender brunette with sad brown eyes answered the door to Audrey's knock.

"Hi. Do you remember me?" The blond asked.

"I do. You're Audrey too, right?" she responded with a smile that didn't entirely banish the desolation that lurked in those brown eyes.

"I am." Audrey's smile warmed. She was helping someone again and it felt the closest to "normal" that she'd experienced since entering the armory. "Do you want your memories back?"

The brunette's face conveyed shock, hunger, and a dawning hope in quick succession.

"Can you make that happen? Really?"

"Yes. You have to come with me. I can't do it here. You game?"

"Of course!"

The other Audrey dashed off a quick note and left it on the fridge in the small apartment and followed the blond out of the building.

"How is it going? You and Brad and life?"

"We're married. He wants a family but I – how can I hope to raise a child when I don't even know who I am?"

"We'll fix that." Audrey promised her original. "And then you can do whatever you want."

She and the other woman walked through the café doors into a large, very white, facility. Other Audrey's eyes widened in amazement and apprehension as visceral memories warned her of danger.

"It's okay." Audrey assured her gently. "You aren't going to be hurt."

"Hello, my dear." Vince appeared in the archway of an opening a few steps away from them. "We have the apparatus prepared, if you just come this way?"

Other Audrey looked at Audrey anxiously.

"It's okay." She reassured her again. "I'm going to be with you the whole time."

Holding hands the two women followed Vince through the opening where he indicated a chair for Other Audrey to sit in. It looked farcically like an old-fashioned hair stylist's chair – the kind that had a hood that would dry hair. Other Audrey's eyes widened with bemusement that almost overrode her apprehension. Audrey gave her hand a squeeze and sat in the metal and leather chair next to the – memory chair?

As soon as the hood came down Other Audrey slumped into unconsciousness.

"Before we start…" Vince began, looking at Audrey, "How much memory am I giving her? Just to when she arrived at Haven to search for you? Until the day the barn took her memory? What?"

"All of it." Audrey told Vince firmly, still holding the other woman's hand. "She's strong and she's principled. We can trust her discretion."

"Very well." Lights began to play on Other Audrey's face and her eyes twitched and rolled under the closed lids. In a shorter time than seemed reasonable the lights faded away and the hood raised. Other Audrey breathed more deeply and then her eyes blinked open.

"Oooh, my head." She groaned, hands coming up to squeeze the temples.

"It'll fade in a moment." Vince assured her. "It's just the memories settling back into place."

"Who are you? What happened to Howard?" She asked dazedly.

"He – died." Vincent told her somberly. "I'm his replacement."

"Why did – ?" she faltered, her voice trailing off.

"Audrey, you're yourself again." The blond woman said gently. "And you're the only you on Earth now. I won't be back."

"Thank you…" the brunette told her softly. "I need to get back to Brad now. We have so much to talk about."

"Be well." The blond hugged the brunette and remained behind as Vince escorted the original Audrey Parker back to reality. She was joined by both men as soon as the original had left the building.

"I can't do this anymore." She told them simply, tears welling in her blue eyes and misery on her face. "I can't go on missing Nathan and grieving for Duke – knowing that my best friend died because of me and my love is trying to go on without either of us."

"Duke didn't die because of you, Dove." The sandy-haired man said uncomfortably.

"I failed him." She answered, her words just a whisper of pain. "I helped prime him to become a weapon and I couldn't save him on that last day."

"The armory is stable." Vincent told her. "You don't have to stay here anymore. It will function just fine without you. Do you want to go back to Haven?"

"Yes." Audrey replied, her jaw firming even though tears still threaded down her cheeks, "but not as Audrey Parker and not alone."

"Whatever you want, Dove." The other man assured her, genuine distress covering his face.

"Thanks, Dad." She smiled through her tears. "I'm sorry I have to leave but I just can't…"

"You don't have to convince me." He gathered her into a hug. "Go and do what you have to do. I'll be here."

Audrey returned that hug, feeling a genuine, loving connection to her father for the first and last time. Then she sat in the chair.

"Can you bring James back?" She asked Vince as she sat. "So I can raise my son myself? And pancakes – I want to like pancakes this time."

"Consider it done." Vincent smiled at her reassuringly. His eyes were sad but his smile was genuine. He loved Audrey and he was glad her pain was almost over and he had just the right overlay personality for her this time – but he was going to make sure the name was original. No more erasing the memories of innocent bystanders!

"Goodbye." She whispered, to her father and Vincent, to Nathan and Duke, to Audrey Parker. She leaned back and closed her eyes and the lights began to play. 

In Sanctuary Duke and Grace were sitting in a small park, chatting while they watched a small group of children playing on the toys provided in the center of the area.

"What would make you happy, Duke?" Grace was asking. "If you could have anything you wanted, what would it be?"

"Well…" he drawled slowly, " _some_ sort of criminal activity would be nice." He grinned at her mischievously. Grace laughed, as he'd intended.

"Sorry, Pirate, you're just going to have to accept that you're boringly legitimate now."

"A fate worse than death!" Duke mimed a blow to his heart and fell back against the bench. Grace punched him on the shoulder lightly.

"Seriously, Duke – I want you to like Sanctuary."

"Seriously, Grace, I don't really know. I need time." Duke replied switching to sober and thoughtful in an instant. "I've spent so much of my life fighting against – well, everything, really. I'm not sure what to make of myself right now, to be honest."

"Psst! Buddy! You in the market for a watch?"

A slender, small framed man with a prominent nose hissed at Duke from behind a shade tree. He peeked around for a moment, exposing the nose and flashing open the trench coat he wore to reveal rows of watches hanging inside the coat. Duke's eyes opened wide, as did Grace's but for a different reason.

"Reg?" She questioned in disbelief. "What _are_ you doing? Where did you get that outfit?"

"Not so loud! Don't want the coppers to hear!" Reg protested in a loud whisper.

"What's gotten into you Reg?!"

"A Trouble." Duke said grimly.

"Don't be ridiculous, Duke – we don't have Troubles in Sanctuary." 

"You do now." Duke nodded his head towards the playground where the children were now dressed like American kids from the 1920s.

One boy was busy selling newspapers and a young girl suddenly had a flower stand. Two other children still played but their clothing was of much finer quality, indicating that they were from a higher social class. Grace looked horrified. Duke look worried and wary. He was new, he'd given Troubles before, and _this_ Trouble was obviously geared towards someone from his homeworld.

Duke's hand shot down and he grabbed the arm of the last young boy from the park who was now scruffy and trying to slip Duke's wallet from his jeans.

"Let me go!" the boy demanded frantically.

"Sure." Duke plucked his wallet from the boy's fingers and released him. He scampered off, unfazed by the near capture.

"A Trouble in Sanctuary?!" Grace was stuck on this absurdity.

"Grace, Duke, your presence is requested by Director Therman."

The two who showed up at the park were dressed as police officers, also from the 1920s, much to Grace's distress. Duke was intrigued to see that the woman officer was dressed just like a man – obviously the Trouble didn't know how to deal with gender equality.

"Yes, of course." Grace said distractedly to the officers, staring at the transformed children.

Duke took her hand and tugged her in the direction the officers were indicating.

 _"Grace, this looks bad for me."_

 _"You've been with me since leaving Cenna's office."_

 _"These people are acting like characters from a gangster movie from my world, Grace. And I've given out Troubles before and I've done it from a distance. What is Therman going to think?"_

A thoughtful, and disturbed, silence was Grace's only response. Duke tried to keep his unease to himself but this was such a familiar script for him. A chance at respectability, redemption, community – but then it's snatched away. He wasn't sure he could go through it again. He wrestled with the mounting desire to just step through the thinnie to this world and get while the getting was still good. Then he remembered he couldn't get through the thinnie by himself anyway.

 _"I'll get you through thinnie and to a safe world, Duke, if that's what you want."_ Grace promised him silently, her hand tightening on his. _"I know this isn't you. Tehani and Cenna will vouch for you too, I'm sure."_

Duke didn't respond but the growing sense of imminent disaster subsided slightly. Neither of them noticed the glare sent their way from a nondescript man sipping a hot beverage and reading an electronic device at a sidewalk café along their route.

Grace was unsurprised to see Tehani and Cenna waiting in Therman's office. Duke waited, shoulders rigid with tension, for the boom to fall.

"We haven't had a Trouble in Sanctuary for two hundred year, Duke." Therman said heavily as soon as the door shut behind the officers. Duke waited silently.

"Relax, young man." Therman said gruffly. "Cenna and Tehani both assured me that you are not in the sort of condition you would need to be in to be inadvertently releasing Troubles. You are clearly being targeted, however."

"Grace is the only person I know at all here." Duke observed, his tension easing slightly. "Why would anyone want to target me?"

"That is an excellent question but the most important question at this point in time is: What do we do about this?"

"People are acting like characters from a gangster movie." Duke said slowly, thinking intently about the ramifications. "Right now it's kind of farcical but some of those movies were very violent. We need to find whoever's Trouble has caused this and figure out how to turn it off or someone is going to get hurt or die."

As if on cue gunfire sounded in the distance. Duke's already closed expression locked down even more.

 _"This isn't your fault, Duke."_ Grace told him, anger on his behalf coloring her thoughts. _"Don't play into their hands by blaming yourself."_

"I need the two of you to solve this but you can't go out alone. Others in Sanctuary are bound to link you to this, Duke, and if this is directed at you then whoever engineered it could be looking for a chance to get at you while you're vulnerable."

Duke blinked, shocked at Therman's concern.

"What do you suggest?" Grace asked for them both as Duke struggled to adapt to being considered worth protecting.

"Peacekeepers Jahn and Saryn will help. They are a symbol of authority and order here and no one should challenge either of you while you are all together. How long do you think this will take?"

"Therman…" Grace struggled for the words to explain just how much Trouble solving was guesswork and wishful thinking.

"It varies but I have some ideas to explore." Duke answered, glancing at Grace and missing the small nod that Tehani gave Therman. "Solving a Trouble isn't a cut and dried routine but this is fairly new and I'm cautiously optimistic that we can round up the Troubled person fairly soon. But that raises the question of who set this Trouble in motion in the first place."

"What Duke's saying is that solving this Trouble is just a temporary fix. We have a Troublemaker in Sanctuary." Grace elaborated.

"I know." Therman said heavily. "And we've never managed to track down and deal with a Troublemaker in the history of Sanctuary. Some of you Cleaners eliminated your Troublemakers but…"

"Tehani, you need to gather the mentally Skilled – maybe one of them can sense our Troublemaker. Cenna, find the precogs – why haven't any of them warned us? Therman, alert the council and figure out how we're going to warn the public without panicking them." Grace ordered, slipping into her position of Cleaner without conscious thought. "Duke, you and I have a Troubled person to find." 

Duke shot her a brief smile. It was a lot like being with Audrey and Nathan for a moment there. They went out to meet with the Peacekeepers and Duke was relieved to find them professional and concerned only with tracking down the person creating chaos in Sanctuary.

"I want to go back to that park." Duke told Grace.

"That's a good idea." Grace agreed. "That seems to be the starting point."

"Saryn, Jahn, I need you two to follow our lead. Please don't say or do anything unless we ask you to."

"Or lives are threatened." Jahn countered firmly.

"I can probably deal with that too." Duke assured him. "So wait for a sign from me before you do anything. This is important."

Jahn looked at Grace who nodded at him, backing up Duke's request.

"Very well, sir, but I don't like it."

Duke just stared at Jahn, a bemused look on his face at being called "sir". Grace stifled a giggle at his expression and got the group moving. 

Most of the kids were still at the park. Grace went to talk to the adults and Duke hunted for the kid who'd tried to pick his pockets.

"Hey." He said casually when he came across the boy leaning against the public bathrooms. "No, you aren't in trouble." He went on as the boy gathered himself to run.

"Whatta' ya want?" The boy demanded suspiciously.

"I just want to ask you some questions. You're an observant fellow, I'm sure, and I need to know what's been happening here."

"You a copper?"

"Nope, I'm a smuggler." Duke answered conspiratorially.

"What does a rumrunner care about a bunch of posh kids in the park?"

"I just want to know if any kids look or act a little strange to you."

The boy frowned at Duke but then pointed with his chin off to one side where landscaping created some hiding places, if one was small enough.

"Girl, dressed weird, crying." He said, holding out his hand. Duke reached in his wallet and wasn't surprised to find some odd looking bills. He handed one at random to the boy who gave a gasp of glee and scampered off.

 _"Grace, over here."_ He sent to her silently. She disengaged from her conversation and joined Duke, followed by the Peacekeepers.

"No." Duke told them. "It's a little girl and I'm not going to let you frighten her. That could just make everything worse. Just wait here."

Jahn clearly didn't like this directive but Grace followed it with a hard look and he gave in resentfully.

"Hey there." Duke said, approaching the muffled sobs. They were replaced by a small gasp of fear.

"Don't be afraid." He urged, wiggling through the hedges to see a girl around ten years old still dressed in the modern clothing everyone else had been wearing hours ago. "We're here to help."

"I didn't mean to!" The girl wailed, throwing herself in Duke's arms. Grace bit back a grin at his surprise. One day he'd realize that the vulnerable knew he was a good person.

"I know, I know…" Duke soothed, patting her back. "Just tell us what happened, okay?"

"The magic lady said that I could grant wishes just like her." The sobs began to subside slightly.

"And then what happened?"

"She grabbed my arm and it felt funny. Then she said I should grant your wish. And then everyone got weird and Mommy disappeared!"

"What did I wish for?" Duke wanted to know.

"Some sort of criminal activity. Why is criminal activity so weird?"

"Ahhh…" Duke shot a glance at Grace, at a loss for an answer to this one.

"Criminals can be strange people." Grace answered gently. "They aren't happy when life is too predictable." She shot Duke an amused smirk.

"Will you show us where the lady touched you?"

The girl pulled up her knit shirt to reveal a black handprint on her arm. Duke and Grace exchanged worried looks.

"I'm Grace and this is Duke." Grace said, marshelling her thoughts for how to deal with this innocent. "What's your name?"

"Terilee."

"Well, Terilee, do you understand why granting wishes might not be a good thing?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Duke was relieved to see that her tears had subsided to perfectly normal glumness at how her special power had backfired.

"I'm glad. We need to take this power away from you now before someone gets hurt." Duke went on. "Grace and I can do that."

"Okay." She agreed grudgingly.

"When we're done your mother should return." Grace coaxed.

"Oh. That's good." Terilee perked up. "Will it hurt."

"No. I'll be very gentle." Duke promised. Grace nodded at him, agreement for him to use his newly honed ability to remove Troubles without harming the host and a promise to support his effort if needed. Terilee took a deep breath and held it, her face scrunched up in expectation of something. Duke found himself smiling.

"Just relax, sweetheart." He told her, holding her arm firmly with one hand and placing the other over the handprint.

Black smoke curled from the handprint. Just a few wisps at first but rapidly increasing until Duke's hand was surrounded by it and the girl's arm was unblemished – but the smoke didn't absorb, it just hovered around Duke's hand. Grace frowned worriedly.

"What's it doing?" She asked Duke, earning a large measure of trust by her immediate assumption that this wasn't something Duke was controlling.

"I don't know – it's like it's fighting me."

"Try to form an aether ball from it. Maybe we can just carry it back to Medical and contain it there." Grace suggested.

Sweat beaded Duke's forehead before he managed to coalesce the aether smoke into a ball but he finally managed it.

"Terilee, why don't you take a look and see if your mother is back." Grace suggested but before the girl even moved they heard a woman's voice calling Terilee's name. The girl smiled radiantly and wiggled easily through the bushes.

"Duke, hand me the ball. I'm not happy with this aether's behavior." She told him as the girl vanished through the shrubbery.

Duke started to hand it to her but the ball pulled away from his fingers to hover just out of reach of the two. It bounced from side to side, as if pulled between the Duke and Grace and then dived at Duke. Grace didn't even think, she just dove in front of the black ball, which crashed into her chest and vanished. She gasped, her eyes rolled up in the back of her head, and she collapsed.

"Grace!" Duke caught her before she hit the ground and carried her back to the park. "Get an ambulance or something!" He shouted at the two Peacekeepers, still waiting by the restrooms although their clothing was no longer that of police officers from the 1920s.

Jahn blanched at the sight of Grace's motionless form and spoke into a wrist-piece that Duke had taken for a watch. In a far shorter time than it felt like to Duke a vehicle slid to a halt on the road fronting the park and medical personnel took Grace into their care. Ignoring everyone but Grace, Duke climbed into the vehicle with Grace, refusing to leave her side and leveling a deadly look at the one medic who tried to evict him.

"Sir! We have to stay with you!" Jahn protested vainly.

"You know where the medical building is." Duke told them tightly. "Meet us there. Tell Therman to meet me wherever it is they're taking her."

With that the medic shut the doors and the ambulance raced off. The medics worked on Grace, checking breathing and pulse and looking for clues to the problem. Duke told them about the aether ball, which disturbed both medics, and stayed out of their way as they did their work.

At the medical building the vehicle dropped them off at an entrance that Duke hadn't known existed, although emergency room access was apparently a standard design because he recognized it instantly.

Therman had apparently been alerted by wrist-piece about Grace's collapse and he met them at the emergency doors. Somehow he managed to pry Duke away from Grace and into what was obviously a private waiting area.

"Explain." Therman asked tersely.

Pushing down his worry, Duke explained exactly what had happened, from finding the girl, what she had said, and how the aether had acted and how Grace had collapsed after intercepting the aether.

"I'm afraid to try and draw it out of her." Duke finished miserably. "She should have let it hit me – she has more experience than I do."

"From what you've said this caught her by surprise too." Therman soothed the younger man. "You did your best. She's always been impulsive."

They both shot to their feet when someone who was obviously a doctor entered the room.

"She's stable." The doctor said immediately, her face sympathetic. "But we have no idea what's going on. She's not in a coma and she won't wake up."

"That's it?" Duke demanded fear trying to turn to anger.

"We've put her quarantine and she's under observation. More invasive procedures aren't called for at this point but they might be needed later. Right now we just have to wait and see."

"I'm going in there with her." Duke declared. "Don't even try to keep me out."

"If you go in you have to stay." The doctor warned.

"I touched the aether too. I drew it out of the girl, Terilee. If Grace has to be quarantined then it just makes sense that I should be too."

The doctor nodded and stepped back from Duke. Obviously she agreed with his assessment.

"Follow me to the quarantine unit." She ordered. "And thank you for your honesty. Sir, you need to report to the null room for evaluation. Terilee and everyone she's come in contact with should be evaluated as well."

Duke and the Doctor left the room with Therman speaking into his wrist-piece.

"It went into _her_." The woman hissed angrily into her own wrist-piece, studying Grace through the clear window to the quarantine quarters.

"And…?" came a masculine voice through the device.

"She's unconscious and in quarantine. What now?"

"Now we see what it does to her." The voice said calmly. "It will either work or it won't – worrying –"

"— won't make the crop grow faster. I know." The woman cut him off irritably, moving down the hallway. She was gone moments before the doctor and Duke arrived at the unit.

An hour later Duke had been poked and bled and examined and granted scrubs to wear instead of the garment's he'd entered the room wearing. He settled down in a chair next to Grace and took her hand. A mental probe on his part elicited nothing, not even an echo of his own thoughts.

"Grace, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. You better come back to me because you made a promise to me and I'm holding you to it." As he spoke he also sent the words directly to Grace's mind – but there was no response from the woman who had brought him to Sanctuary. Duke settled in to wait – something that used to be a lot harder for him but he seemed to have developed patience during that last struggle in Haven.

"I'm not going anywhere." He repeated quietly – to himself, her, or the universe in general was unclear. 


End file.
